LIBRARY 

OF   THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 
Class 


THE  GOSPEL  FOR 
AN  AGE  OF  DOUBT 


THE  GOSPEL  FDR 
AN  AGE  OF  DOUBT 


BY 


HENRY  VAN   DYKE 

D.D.   (PRINCETON,  HARVARD,  YALE),  LL.D.   (UNION) 

PASTOR   OF  THE   BRICK  CHURCH  IN  NEW  YORK 


SIXTH  EDITION  REVISED 
WITH  A  NEW  PREFACE 


"  But  if  any  speak  not  concerning  Jesus  Christ, 
I  look  uj>on  them  as  tombstones  and  sepulchres 
of  the  dead,  on  which  are  written  only  the 
names  of  men" 

ST.  IGNATIUS,  Epist.  ad  Phil. 


gork 
THE   MACMILLAN    COMPANY 

LONDON :  MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  LTD. 

1904 
All  rights  restrved 


COPYRIGHT,   1896, 

BT  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped  September,  1896.  Reprinted  December, 
1896;  January,  October,  1897;  September,  1898;  May,  October,  1899, 
August,  1900;  October,  1901;  July,  1902  ;  October,  1904. 


Norfoootr 

J.  S.  Cuihing  &  Co.  -  Berwick  at  Smith 
Norwood  Man.  U.S.A. 


PREFACE 

TO  THE  SIXTH  EDITION 

Two  years  have  passed  since  this  book  was 
first  printed.  A  new  edition  is  now  prepared 
for  popular  use  by  leaving  out  the  appendix 
and  making  the  volume  smaller. 

In  writing  a  new  preface,  I  am  glad  of  the 
opportunity  to  express  my  sincere  gratitude  to 
the  many  friends  who  have  given  the  book  a 
welcome  in  different  parts  of  the  world,  and  have 
translated  its  message  into  other  languages.  I 
wish  to  acknowledge  also  the  benefit  received 
from  those*  intelligent  critics  who  have  pointed 
out  some  of  its  faults  and  shortcomings,  and 
to  make  some  brief  reply  to  those  other  critics 
who  have  misconceived  its  purpose  and  misrep- 
resented its  meaning.  But  most  of  all  I  would 
like  to  say  a  word  to  make  the  spirit  and  aim 
of  the  book  more  clear,  and  so  to  bring  it  into 
touch  with  the  personal  life  of  those  into  whose 
hands  it  may  fall. 

It  was  written  in  the  form  of  a  course  of 
lectures  on  preaching,  on  the  "  Lyman  Beecher 
xiii 


xiv  Preface 

Foundation,"  and  delivered  before  the  divinity 
students  of  Yale  University.  But  the  aim  of 
these  lectures  was  not  to  teach  the  art  of  making 
sermons.  It  was  to  accentuate  the  truth  that 
the  question,  What  to  preach,  comes  first,  and  the 
question,  How  to  preach,  comes  afterwards.  A 
man  must  have  a  distinct  message,  clear  and 
luminous  to  his  own  soul,  —  a  message  which 
comes  to  him  with  a  joyful  sense  of  newness 
and  demands  utterance,  —  he  must  feel  the  liv- 
ing fitness  of  this  precise  message  to  the  needs 
of  the  world,  before  he  can  learn  to  deliver 
it  with  freedom  and  power. 

The  study  of  theology  as  a  science  is  a  very 
important  study.  The  training  of  men  in  the 
art  of  preaching  is  a  very  valuable  discipline. 
But  the  vital  experience  of  faith  is  -deeper  and 
broader  than  the  theories  of  theology.  The 
art  of  preaching  is  worth  little  unless  it  serves 
to  enrich  and  ennoble  the  larger  art  of  living. 
Religion  is  the  secret  of  this  larger  art  of  liv- 
ing. And  the  power  of  religion  to  inspire  and 
guide  men  to  purer,  stronger,  happier,  more 
beautiful  lives,  does  not  depend  upon  the  modes 
and  forms  in  which  it  is  preached,  but  simply 
upon  the  concrete  gospel,  the  good  news  about 
God  and  the  world,  which  it  brings  into  their 
hearts. 


Preface 


-  xv 


The  audience  in  the  Yale  chapel  appealed  to 
me  less  as  students  of  theology,  than  as  young 
men  with  a  life  to  live  and  a  work  to  do  in  the 
modern  world,  in  the  present  age.  Around 
them  I  felt  the  pressure  of  those  great,  myste- 
rious forces  which  are  silently  changing  the 
current  of  human  thought  and  the  face  of 
human  society.  Behind  them  I  saw  the  wider 
circle  of  the  young  men  and  women  of  the  new 
generation,  the  children  of  this  age,  born  into 
the  turmoil  and  confusion,  the  intellectual  stress 
and  storm,  of  a  period  of  transition.  It  was  to 
this  wider  circle  that  I  really  wanted  to  speak, 
through  the  divinity  students  who  composed 
the  immediate  audience.  I  wanted  to  tell  the 
men  who  were  studying  for  the  ministry  that 

they  must  not  let  themselves  be  educated  out 

• 

of  sympathy  with  the  modern  world;  that  they 
must  understand  the  trials  and  difficulties  of 
the  present  age  in  order  to  serve  it  effectively; 
that  they  must  keep  in  touch  with  living  men 
and  women,  outside  of  the  circle  of  faith  as 
well  as  within  it,  if  they  wished  to  help  them. 

But  more  than  this.  I  wanted  to  show  that 
there  is  a  message  of  religion  especially  fitted 
to  meet  the  needs  of  our  times.  There  is  an 
aspect  of  Christianity  which  comes  to  the  world 
to-day  as  glad  tidings.  There  is  a  newness  in 


xvi  Preface 

the  old  gospel  which  shines  out  like  a  sunrise 
upon  the  darkness  and  despondency  that  over- 
shadow so  much  of  modern  life.  This  aspect 
of  Christianity  centres  in  the  person  of  Jesus 
Christ,  as  the  human  life  of  God.  This  new- 
ness of  the  gospel  lies  in  believing  in  Him  as  a 
real  man,  in  whose  sonship  the  Fatherhood  of 
God  is  revealed  and  made  certain  to  all  men. 
And  the  power  of  this  message  to  enrich  and 
ennoble  life  lies  in  the  fact  that  those  who 
receive  it  are  set  free  from  a  threefold  bond- 
age :  first,  from  the  heavy  thought  that  they 
are  creatures  of  necessity  whose  actions  and 
destiny  are  determined  by  heredity  and  en- 
vironment ;  second,  from  the  haunting  fear  that 
the  world  is  governed  by  blind  chance  or  brute 
force  ;  and  third,  from  the  curse  of  sin,  which 
is  selfishness.  To  see  Christ  as  the  true  Son  of 
God  and  the  brother  of  all  men,  is  to  be  sure 
that  the  soul  is  free,  and  that  God  is  good,  and 
that  the  end  of  life  is  noble  service. 

This  is  the  message  that  I  wanted  to  deliver 
in  this  book,  as  the  true  gospel  for  an  age  of 
doubt. 

The  title  has  been  misunderstood  by  some  of 
the  critics  who  have  read  it,  apparently  without 
going  any  further  into  the  book.  They  have 


Preface  « 

taken  it  as  if  it  were  an  arraignment  of  the 
present  age  for  irreligion  and  infidelity.  They 
have  resented  it  as  if  it  were  a  confession  of 
the  decline  of  Christianity.  They  have  found 
fault  with  the  writer  for  a  want  of  sympathy 
with  the  intellectual  perplexities  of  the  men 
and  women  of  to-day,  and  a  lack  of  insight  into 
their  spiritual  life  and  moral  purposes. 

It  seems  strange  that  any  one  should  make 
such  a  criticism.  The  answer,  to  it  may  be 
found  in  the  first  chapter,  where  I  have  tried 
to  draw  the  distinction  between  doubt  and 
infidelity.  But  in  order  that  there  may  be  no 
room  for  mistake,  I  will  say  what  I  mean  again, 
and  yet  more  clearly. 

In  calling  the  present  "an  age  of  doubt,"  I 
do  not  mean  that  it  is  the  only  age  in  which 
doubt  has  been  prevalent,  nor  that  doubt  is  the 
only  characteristic  of  the  age.  I  mean  simply 
that  it  is  one  of  those  periods  of  human  history 
in  which  the  sudden  expansion  of  knowledge 
and  the  breaking-up  of  ancient  moulds  of 
thought  have  produced  a  profound  and  wide- 
spread feeling  of  uncertainty  in  regard  to  the 
subject  of  religion.  The  remarkable  achieve- 
ments of  the  critical  method  as  applied  to 
philosophy,  history,  and  literature,  have  led 
men  to  ask  whether  it  may  not  be  applied  in 


xviii  Preface 

the  same  way  to  theology,  and  to  take  it  for 
granted  that  the  result  must  be  destructive. 
The  difficulty  of  adjusting  the  new  discoveries 
of  science  to  the  established  forms  of  theo- 
logical doctrine,  has  produced  in  some  reluctant 
and  irritable  minds  a  disposition  to  resent  all 
scientific  research,  and  to  denounce  it  as  atheis- 
tic. But  in  a  far  greater  number  of  minds  it 
has  begotten  a  misgiving,  that  if  religion  needs 
to  defend  itself  by  denying  facts  it  must  stand 
on  a  very  insecure  foundation.  There  is  a 
large  class  of  people,  thoughtful,  earnest,  sin- 
cere, who  live  under  the  shadow  of  this 
misgiving.  They  want  religion.  They  are 
attracted  by  its  spiritual  ideals,  by  its  moral 
inspiration.  But  they  hesitate  to  accept  it, 
at  least  in  its  Christian  form,  for  fear  that 
it  may  not  be  reasonable.  The  questioning 
temper  holds  possession  of  their  minds.  Their 
attitude  toward  religious  things  is  interroga- 
tive. The  secular  spirit  insensibly  gains  do- 
minion over  their  thoughts  and  feelings. 
They  grow  weary  of  asking  questions  which 
seem  to  find  no  answer.  The  influence  of  the 
great  mass  of  popular  literature  in  which 
religion  is  practically  ignored,  tends  to  foster 
the  impression  that  it  is  a  subject  in  regard  to 
which  certainty  is  neither  necessary  nor  attain- 


Preface 


xix 


able.  The  existence  of  God,  the  reality  of 
the  soul,  the  prospect  of  immortality,  —  these 
appear  like  insoluble  problems  to  many  of  the 
children  of  this  age.  They  are  troubled  and 
depressed  and  impoverished  by  the  want  of 
faith,  but  they  accept  indecision  as  the  only 
rational  attitude,  and  try  to  do  the  best  that 
they  can  without  believing  in 

"  The  truths  that  never  can  be  proved." 

This  is  what  I  mean  by  an  age  of  doubt. 
Who  that  knows  the  young  men  and  women  of 
to-day,  can  deny  that  multitudes  of  the  very 
best  of  them  are  feeling  the  influence  of  this 
kind  of  doubt,  and  suffering  under  it?  Who 
can  fail  to  see  that  in  many  ways  this  kind  of 
doubt  is  an  evidence  of  spiritual  sincerity,  of 
moral  earnestness,  of  a  desire  to  be  true  to  the 
truth  at  all  costs  ?  Who  can  forget  that  the 
sadness,  the  despondency,  the  pessimism  of 
many  of  those  who  have  surrendered  faith  at 
the  call  of  what  they  conceived  to  be  an  intel- 
lectual duty,  is  in  itself  a  proof  that  religion  is 
necessary  to  complete  human  life  and  make  the 
world  endurable  ? 

This  is  a  doubting  age.  But  it  is  not  there- 
fore an  age  to  be  despised  or  despaired  of.  It 
is  a  hopeful  age,  an  earnest  age,  an  age  of  gen- 


XX 


Preface 


erous  feeling  and  noble  action.  What  it  needs 
is  a  clear  answer  to  its  doubt,  and  a  powerful 
remedy  for  its  sadness.  This  answer  and  this 
remedy  are  found  in  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ. 
His  life  is  a  fact  which  cannot  be  explained 
without  God.  His  character  is  a  standing 
proof  of  the  reality  of  the  spiritual  world.  A 
universe  of  matter  and  force  could  never  have 
produced  such  a  person.  His  teaching  is  a 
direct  witness  to  things  which  are  unseen  and 
eternal.  Those  who  will  receive  it  shall  find 
His  words  a  fountain  of  living  waters  springing 
up  within  them  unto  everlasting  life. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  any  one  can  write 
or  speak  so  as  to  make  everybody  perceive  and 
accept  this  truth.  All  human  preaching  comes 
far  short  of  the  fulness  of  the  gospel.  Even 
while  Christ  was  on  earth  there  were  many  who 
doubted,  and  held  fast  to  their  doubts.  But  I 
am  sure  that  the  most  helpful,  the  most  con- 
vincing message  for  a  doubtful  age  is  that 
which  centres  in  His  person,  and  seeks  to  make 
Him  evident  as  the  final  and  immutable  revela- 
tion of  God. 

That  is  what  this  book  tries  to  do.  It  is  in 
fact  nothing  more  than  an  endeavour  to  prove 
these  two  things:  Christ  is  a  real  person; 
Christ  is  God  manifest  in  the  flesh. 


Preface 


xxi 


But  it  differs  from  other  arguments  for  the 
Divinity  of  Christ  in  at  least  one  point.  It 
accepts  without  reserve  or  qualification  the  per- 
fect humanity  of  Christ.  The  chapter  in  which 
this  view  of  the  person  of  Jesus  is  expressed 
has  been  criticised  as  dangerous.  I  cannot 
alter  it,  because  it  represents  my  most  profound 
convictions.  To  me  it  seems  not  dangerous, 
but  safe,  —  far  more  safe,  indeed,  than  any 
other  view,  because  it  corresponds  more  closely 
with  the  facts.  The  life  which  Christ  lived  on 
earth  was  a  veritable  human  life.  The  person 
who  lived  it  was  the  Son  of  God.  But  in  order 
to  live  that  human  life  He  had  to  become  man, 
not  in  a  dramatic  sense,  but  actually  and  en- 
tirely. There  were  not  two  wills  and  two 
minds  working  within  the  person  of  Jesus. 
The  mind  that  was  in  Christ  was  a  single  mind, 
and  His  will  was  the  expression  of  an  undi- 
vided personality.  He  was  subject  to  igno- 
rance, to  limitation,  to  weakness,  to  temptation, 
even  as  we  are.  The  only  point  of  difference 
between  Him  and  us  is  that  we  sin,  but  He 
sinned  not.  The  Godhood  that  was  in  Him 
was  such  as  manhood  is  capable  of  receiving. 
There  is  no  evidence  in  His  life  or  in  His 
character  of  the  omniscience  and  omnipresence 
and  omnipotence  that  would  have  separated 


xxii  Preface 

Him  from  us.     His  existence  among  men  was 
simply  the  human  life  of  God. 

It  seems  to  me  that  this  is  the  view  of  Christ 
which  is  given  in  the  New  Testament.  I  have 
tried  to  express  it  clearly,  because  it  opens  the 
way  to  the  dissolving  of  many  doubts,  and 
makes  His  Divinity  at  once  easier  to  be  be- 
lieved, in  and  more  precious  in  its  significance. 
And  if  it  does  this  for  one  reader  who  has 
been  troubled  by  unbelief  in  the  Divinity  of 
Christ,  if  it  shows  one  seeker  after  God  how  to 
find  Him  in  the  man  Christ  Jesus,  the  chief 
purpose  of  the  book  will  be  accomplished. 

The  same  considerations  and  desires  have 
controlled  my  treatment  of  the  doctrines  of  fore- 
ordination,  sovereignty,  and  election.  There 
has  been  no  intention  to  enter  into  theological 
controversy.  Indeed,  if  I  had  intended  to  do 
this,  the  report  of  the  critics  upon  the  result 
would  fill  me  with  curious  confusion.  For 
they  seem  to  be  unable  to  decide  upon  which 
side  of  the  controversy  the  book  is  to  be 
reckoned.  One  of  them  calls  it  "  a  violent  and 
unfair  attack  upon  Calvinism  " ;  another  says 
that  "it  presents  the  doctrines  of  the  West- 
minster Confession  so  winningly  that  they  are 
accepted  almost  before  they  are  recognized." 


Preface  xxiii 

The  compliment  and  the  reproach  are  alike 
undeserved.  In  point  of  fact  I  was  not  think- 
ing at  all  of  Calvinism  or  of  the  Westminster 
Confession,  but  only  of  the  New  Testament, 
and  of  how  directly  it  meets  the  wants  of  our 
age  with  the  liberating  teachings  of  Christ. 
Nothing  has  been  more  effective  in  begetting 
and  increasing  doubts  than  the  idea  that 
Christian  doctrine  required  us  to  believe  that 
all  events,  good  and  evil,  were  foreordained  by 
God,  and  that  some  men  were  eternally  chosen 
to  be  saved,  without  regard  to  their  faith  or 
works,  while  all  the  rest  were  left  to  inevitable 
destruction.  There  is  no  trace  of  such  an  idea 
in  the  mind  of  Christ.  On  the  contrary,  He  is 
the  great  liberator  of  men  from  the  bondage  of 
fatalism,  and  His  invitation  to  all  the  weary 
and  heavy-laden  to  come  unto  Him  is  a  divine 
assurance  that  whosoever  will  may  have  ever- 
lasting life. 

After  years  of  doubt  and  inward  conflict  I 
have  arrived  at  great  peace  and  comfort  in  the 
unreserved  acceptance  of  these  teachings  of 
Jesus.  I  do  not  believe  that  all  things  that 
happen  are  determined  beforehand.  The  soul 
is  free.  The  evil  that  men  do  is  all  their  own; 
God  has  not  foreordained  it.  His  only  pre- 
destination is  to  good,  and  if  men  will  accept 


xxiv  Preface 

their  divine  destiny,  God  will  help  them  to  fulfil 
it.  Election  is  not  the  arbitrary  choice  of  a 
few  to  receive  blessings  from  which  the  many 
are  excluded.  It  is  the  selection  of  certain 
races  and  men  to  receive  great  privileges  to  fit 
them  for  the  service  of  all  mankind  in  the 
divine  kingdom.  This  is  my  faith  in  regard  to 
these  questions.  I  have  made  no  secret  of  it. 
The  recent  agitation  concerning  ministerial 
honour  in  creed  subscription  seemed  to  require 
that  it  should  be  frankly  confessed.  If  such  a 
faith  were  inconsistent  with  any  ecclesiastical 
obligations,  I  should  be  prompt  to  renounce 
them.  But  it  is  evident  that  there  is  no  incon- 
sistency. A  man  may  hold  this  faith  and 
preach  it,  as  a  loyal  Christian,  in  the  fellow- 
ship of  the  Presbyterian  Church. 

It  remains  only  to  add  a  word  of  explanation 
in  regard  to  a  criticism  of  this  book  which  goes 
deeper  than  any  of  those  of  which  I  have 
spoken.  A  writer,  for  whose  opinion  I  have 
great  respect,  has  said  that  the  volume  does 
not  give  due  place  and  proportion  to  the  truth 
of  the  Atonement ;  that  it  fails  to  set  forth 
Christ  as  uthe  Lamb  of  God  which  taketh 
away  the  sin  of  the  world." 

If  this  were  altogether  true,  I  should  be  very 


Preface  t      xxv 

sorry.  I  certainly  believe  that  Christ  is  the 
only  Saviour  of  sinners;  that  He  died  to  re- 
deem men  from  the  curse  of  sin,  and  that  the 
attraction  of  His  cross  is  most  potent  upon  the 
human  heart.  I  have  tried  to  say  this  very 
distinctly  in  the  second  chapter  and  at  the 
close  of  the  fourth  chapter. 

But  that  the  criticism  is  partly  true  I  must 
admit.  The  Atonement  does  not  appear  in  its 
due  place  and  proportion  in  this  book.  It 
would  not  have  been  possible  without  pro- 
longing the  volume  to  a  much  greater  length 
and  turning  aside  from  the  purpose  for  which 
it  was  written.  It  was  not  intended  to  be  a 
complete  statement  of  Christian  truth.  It  was 
meant  only  to  present  that  aspect  of  the  gospel 
which  seemed  to  be  especially  adapted  to  the 
wants  of  an  age  of  doubt.  I  was  thinking  of 
the  men  and  women  whose  minds  are  confused 
and  troubled  by  modern  speculations,  who  are 
oppressed  by  the  intellectual  difficulties  of 
belief,  who  feel  the  benumbing  influence  of  the 
secular  spirit,  and  who  stand  sadly  in  doubt  in 
regard  to  the  reality  of  the  whole  spiritual  life. 
I  wanted  to  say  something  to  help  them,  some- 
thing to  make  it  easier  for  them  to  believe  in 
Christ,  and,  through  Christ,  in  God. 

I  know  very  well  that  it  is  not  enough  for 


XXVI 


Preface 


men  to  be  delivered  from  doubt.  They  need 
also  to  be  saved  from  sin.  But  before  this  can 
have  any  meaning  to  them  they  must  begin  to 
believe  in  a  Divine  Being  and  in  their  own 
spiritual  relationship  to  Him.  What  does  sin 
mean  to  a  man  who  doubts  whether  there  is  a 
personal  God,  and  thinks  that  his  soul  may  be 
only  a  name  for  a  certain  secretion  of  the  gray 
matter  in  his  brain,  and  has  no  sure  expectation 
of  a  life  beyond  death?  What  he  needs  first 
of  all  is  a  gospel  which  will  bring  him  news  of 
a  real  spiritual  world,  a  gospel  whose  simplicity 
and  directness  and  personal  force  will  make  the 
first  adventure  of  faith  possible.  It  was  of 
such  men  as  this  that  I  was  thinking,  when 
this  book  was  written. 

I  know  very  well  that  the  book  is  incom- 
plete. It  touches  only  one  aspect  of  the  great- 
est of  all  subjects.  It  needs  a  sequel,  to  make 
it  harmonize  more  fully  with  the  truth  as  it 
is  in  Jesus,  and  to  bring  it  into  touch  with 
another  side  of  the  need  of  humanity.  Very 
soon,  I  hope  to  be  permitted  to  follow  this 
volume  on  "  The  Gospel  for  an  Age  of  Doubt," 
with  another,  on  "  The  Gospel  for  a  World  of 
Sin." 


"  THULE,"  YORK  HARBOUR, 

July  10th,  1898. 


CONTENTS 


1KCTUKB 

I.  AN  AGE  OF  DOUBT    .....       1 

II.  THE  GOSPEL  OF  A  PERSON        ...      41 

III.  THE  UNVEILING  OF  THE  FATHER     .        .      81 

IV.  THE  HUMAN  LIFE  OF  GOD       .        .        .123 
V.  THE  SOURCE  OF  AUTHORITY     .        .        .107 

VI.    LIBERTY      .......    203 

VII.    SOVEREIGNTY      ......    245 

VIII.    SERVICE      .....       .       .281 

INDEX  .        .        .    319 


1 

AN  AGE  OF  DOUBT 


**  Cleave  ever  to  the  sunnier  side  of  doubt, 
And  cling  to  Faith  beyond  the  forms  of  Faith  I 
She  reels  not  in  the  storm  of  warring  words, 
She  brightens  at  the  clash  of  *  Yes '  and  « No,' 
She  sees  the  Best  that  glimmers  thro'  the  Worst, 
She  feels  the  Sun  is  hid  but  for  a  night, 
She  spies  the  summer  thro'  the  winter  bud, 
She  tastes  the  fruit  before  the  blossom  falls, 
She  hears  the  lark  within  the  songless  egg, 
She  finds  the  fountain  where  they  wail'd  « Mirage '  1 " 
—  TENNYSON,  The  Ancient  Sage. 


AN  AGE  OF  DOUBT 

THERE  is  one  point  in  which  all  men  resem-  The  person. 
ble  each  other :  it  is  that  they  are  all  different.   a(€q" ati(m 

of  the  ag«. 

But  their  differences  are  not  fixed  and  immuta- 
ble. They  are  variable  and  progressive.  Types 
of  character  survive  or  perish,  like  the  forms 
of  animal  life.  Some  predominate ;  others  are 
subordinated. 

Thus  it  comes  to  pass  that  underneath  all 
the  diversities  of  individual  life,  we  may  dis- 
cern, not  with  the  clearness  of  a  portrait,  but 
with  the  vague  outlines  of  a  composite  photo- 
graph, the  features  of  a  Zeitgeist,  a  spirit  of 
the  time.  Generations  differ  almost  as  much 
as  the  men  who  compose  them.  There  is  a 
personal  equation  in  every  age. 

To  know  this  is  a  necessity  for  the  preacher. 
Even  as  the  physician  must  apprehend  the  idio- 
syncrasy of  his  patient,  and  the  teacher  must 
recognize  the  quality  of  his  pupil,  so  must  the 
preacher  be  in  touch  with  his  age. 
3 


4  An  Age  of  Doubt 

Literature  Jn  endeavouring  to  arrive  at  this  knowledge^ 
contact  with  the  world  is  of  the  first  conse- 
quence. For  one  who  desires  to  make  men  and 
women  what  they  ought  to  be,  nothing  can 
take  the  place  of  an  acquaintance  with  men 
and  women  as  they  are.  It  seems  to  me  that 
one  of  the  best  means  of  obtaining  this  ac- 
quaintance is  through  literature,  —  not  that 
highly  specialized  and  more  or  less  technical 
variety  of  literature  which  is  produced  ex- 
pressly for  certain  classes  of  readers,  but  liter- 
ature in  the  broader  sense,  as  it  appeals  to 
cultivated  and  intelligent  people  in  general, 
including  contemporary  history  and  criticism 
poetry  and  fiction,  popular  philosophy  and  di 
luted  science.  This  kind  of  literature  is  the 
efflorescence  of  the  Zeitgeist.  It  is  at  once  a 
product,  and  a  cause,  of  the  temperament  of 
the  age.  In  it  we  see  not  only  what  certain 
men  have  written  by  way  of  comment  on  the 
movement  of  the  times,  but  also  what  a  great 
many  men  are  reading  while  they  move.  It 
expresses,  and  it  creates,  a  spirit,  an  attitude 
of  mind.  "I  do  not  imagine,"  says  a  keen 
observer,  "  that  I  am  announcing  an  altogether 
novel  truth  in  affirming  that  literature  is  one  of 
the  elements  of  the  ethical  life, — the  most  im- 
portant perhaps  ;  for  in  the  decline,  more  and 


An  Age  of  JDoubt  5 

more  evident,  of  traditional  and  local  influences, 
the  book  is  taking  its  place  as  the  great  ini- 
tiator."1 

For  this  reason  I  believe  that  a  course  in  The  value 
modern  novels  and  poetry  might  well  be  made  °fg*mr<A 
a  part  of  every  scheme  of  preparation  for  the 
ministry.  The  preacher  who  does  not  know 
what  his  people  are  reading  does  not  know  his 
people.  He  will  miss  the  significance  of  the 
current  talk  of  society,  and  even  of  the  daily 
comments  of  the  newspapers,  which  are  in  fact 
only  a  cheap  substitute  for  conversation,  unless 
he  has  the  key  to  it  in  the  tone  of  popular 
literature.  It  is  from  this  source  that  I  have 
drawn  many  of  the  illustrations  for  this  lecture. 
If  they  appear  unfamiliar  or  out  of  place  in  a 
theological  seminary,  I  can  only  say  that  they 
seem  to  me  none  the  less,  but  perhaps  the  more, 
significant  and  valuable  on  that  account.  For 
I  think  that  one  of  the  causes  by  which,  as 
John  Foster  wrote  seventy  years  ago,  "Evan- 
gelical Religion  has  been  rendered  unaccepta- 
ble to  persons  of  cultivated  taste,"2  has  been 
a  certain  ill-disguised  contempt  on  the  part  of 

1  Paul  Bourget,  Essais  de  Psychologic  Contemporaine, 
Paris,  1895. 

2  John  Foster,  Essays,  "  On  the  Aversion  of  Men  of  Taste 
to  Evangelical  Religion,"  p.  188, 


6  An  Age  of  Doubt 

persons  of  orthodox  opinions  for  what  they 
are  pleased  to  call,  "mere  belles-lettres.11  And 
though  I  do  not  fancy  that  there  is  any  sym- 
pathy with  that  frame  of  mind  in  this  place, 
yet  the  occasion  seems  opportune  for  saying 
in  a  definite  way  that  the  preacher  who  wishes 
to  speak  to  this  age  must  read  many  books  in 
order  that  he  may  be  in  a  position  to  make  the 
best  use  of  what  Sir  Walter  Scott  called  "  the 
one  Book."  He  must  keep  himself  in  touch 
with  modern  life  by  studying  modern  litera- 
ture, which  is  one  of  its  essential  factors. 


A  doubting  As  soon  as  we  step  out  of  the  theological  cir- 
cle into  the  broad  field  of  general  reading  we 
see  that  we  are  living  in  an  age  of  doubt. 

I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  this  is  the  only 
feature  in  the  physiognomy  of  the  age.  It 
has  many  other  aspects,  from  any  one  of  which 
we  might  pick  a  name.  From  the  material 
side,  we  might  call  it  an  age  of  progress ; 
from  the  intellectual  side,  an  age  of  science ; 
from  the  medical  side,  an  age  of  hysteria ;  from 
the  political  side,  an  age  of  democracy;  from 
the  commercial  side,  an  age  of  advertisement ; 
from  the  social  side,  an  age  of  publicomania. 


An  Age  of  Doubt         +  7 

But  looking  at  it  from  the  spiritual  side,  which 
is  the  preacher's  point  of  view,  and  considering 
that  interior  life  to  which  every  proclamation 
of  a  gospel  must  be  addressed,  beyond  a  doubt 
it  stands  confessed  as  a  doubting  age. 

There  is  a  profound  and  wide-spread  un-  The  ques- 
settlement  of  soul  in  regard  to  fundamental 
truths  of  religion,  and  also  in  regard  to  the 
nature  and  existence  of  the  so-called  spiritual 
faculties  by  which  alone  these  truths  can  be 
perceived.  In  its  popular  manifestations,  this 
unsettlement  takes  the  form  of  uncertainty 
rather  than  of  denial,  of  unbelief  rather  than 
of  disbelief,  of  general  scepticism  rather  than 
of  specific  infidelity.  The  questioning  spirit 
is  abroad,  moving  on  the  face  of  the  waters, 
seeking  rest  and  finding  none. 

It  is  not  merely  that  particular  doctrines, 
such  as  the  inspiration  of  the  Bible,  or  the 
future  punishment  of  the  wicked,  are  attacked 
and  denied.  The  preacher  who  concentrates 
his  attention  at  these  points  will  fail  to  realize 
the  gravity  of  the  situation.  It  is  not  that  a 
spirit  of  bitter  and  mocking  atheism,  such  as 
Bishop  Butler  described  at  the  close  of  the 
last  century,  has  led  people  of  discernment 
to  set  up  religion  "as  a  principal  subject  of 


8  An  Age  of  Doubt 

mirth  and  ridicule,  as  it  were  by  way  of  re* 
prisal  for  its  having  so  long  interrupted  the 
pleasures  of  the  world."1  The  preacher  who 
takes  that  view  of  the  case  now  will  be  at 
least  fifty  years  too  late.  He  will  fail  to 
understand  the  serious  and  pathetic  temper  of 
the  age. 

Respectful  The  questioning  spirit  of  to-day  is  severe 
but  not  bitter,  restless  but  not  frivolous ;  it 
takes  itself  very  seriously  and  applies  its  meth- 
ods of  criticism,  of  analysis,  of  dissolution, 
with  a  sad  courtesy  of  demeanour,  to  the  deep- 
est and  most  vital  truths  of  religion,  the  being 
of  God,  the  reality  of  the  soul,  the  possibility 
of  a  future  life.  Everywhere  it  comes  and 
everywhere  it  asks  for  a  reason,  in  the  shape 
of  a  positive  and  scientific  demonstration. 
When  one  is  given,  it  asks  for  another,  and 
when  another  is  given,  it  asks  for  the  reason 
of  the  reason.  The  laws  of  evidence,  the  prin- 
ciples of  judgment,  the  witness  of  history,  the 
testimony  of  consciousness,  —  all  are  called  in 
question.  The  answers  which  have  been  given 
by  religion  to  the  most  difficult  and  pressing 
problems  of  man's  inner  life  are  declared  to 
be  unsatisfactory  and  without  foundation.  The 

2  Joseph  Butler,  The  Analogy  of  Religion  (London,  Bell 
&  Daldy,  1858).    «  Advertisement,'1  p.  xxit. 


An  Age  of  Doubt  9 

question  remains  unsolved.  Is  it  insoluble? 
The  age  stands  in  doubt.  Its  coat-of -arms  is 
an  interrogation  point  rampant,  above  three 
bishops  dormant,  and  its  motto  is  Query? 


If  we  inquire  the  cause  of  this  general  seep-  Causes  of 

..    .         .  -,   .          ,.    .          .-,  scepticism. 

ticism  in  regard  to  religion,  the  common  answer 
from  all  sides  would  probably  attribute  it  to 
the  progress  of  science.  I  do  not  feel  satisfied 
with  this  answer.  At  least  I  should  wish  to 
qualify  it  in  such  a  way  as  to  give  it  a  very 
different  meaning  from  that  which  is  implied  in 
the  current  phrase  "  the  conflict  between  science 
and  religion." 

Science,  in  itself  considered,  the  orderly  and  Science  not 
reasoned  knowledge  of  the  phenomenal  universe  reugi0n> 
of  things  and  events,  ought  not  to  be,  and  has 
not  been,  hostile  to  religion,  simply  because  it 
does  not,  and  cannot,  enter  into  the  same  sphere. 
The  great  advance  which  has  been  made  in  the 
observation  and  classification  of  sensible  facts, 
and  in  the  induction  of  so-called  general  laws 
under  which  those  facts  may  be  arranged  for  pur- 
poses of  study,  has  not  even  touched  the  two 
questions  upon  the  answer  to  which  the  reality 
and  nature  of  religion  depend :  first,  the  pos- 


10  An  Age  of  Doubt 

sible  existence  of  other  facts  which  physical 
science  cannot  observe  and  classify ;  and  sec- 
ond, the  probable  explanation  of  these  facts. 
The  task  of  What  has  happened  is  just  this.  The  field  in 
changed,but  which  faith  has  to  work  has  been  altered,  and 
enlarged.  it  seems  to  me  enormously  broadened.  But 
the  work  remains  the  same.  The  question  is 
whether  faith  has  enough  vital  energy  to  face 
and  accomplish  it.  For  example,  the  material 
out  of  which  to  construct  an  argument  from 
the  evidences  of  final  cause  in  nature  has  been 
incalculably  increased  by  the  discoveries  of  the 
last  fifty  years  in  regard  to  natural  selection 
and  the  origin  of  species.  The  observant  wan- 
derer in  the  field  of  nature  to-day  no  longer 
stumbles  upon  Dr.  Paley's  old-fashioned,  open- 
faced,  turnip-shaped  watch  lying  on  the  ground. 
He  finds,  instead,  an  intricate  and  self-adjusting 
chronometer,  capable  not  only  of  marking  time 
with  accuracy,  but  also  of  evolving  by  its  own 
operation  another  more  perfect  and  delicate 
instrument,  with  qualities  and  powers  which 
adapt  themselves  to  their  surroundings  and  so 
advance  forever.  The  idea  of  final  cause  has 
not  been  touched.  Only  the  region  which  it 
must  illuminate  has  been  vastly  enlarged.  It 
remains  to  be  seen  whether  faith  can  supply 
the  illuminating  power.  Already  we  have  the 


An  Age  of  Doubt  11 

promise  of  an  answer  in  many  books,  by  mas- 
ters of  science  and  philosophy,  who  show  that 
the  theory  of  evolution  demands  for  its  com- 
pletion the  recognition  of  the  spiritual  nature 
of  man  and  the  belief  in  an  intelligent  and  per- 
sonal God. 

The  spread  of  scepticism  is  often  attributed  The  expan* 
to  the  growth  of  our  conception  of  the  physical 
magnitude  of  the  universe.  The  bewildering 
numbers  and  distances  of  the  stars,  the  gigan- 
tic masses  of  matter  in  motion,  and  the  tremen- 
dous sweep  of  the  forces  which  drive  our  tiny 
earth  along  like  a  grain  of  dust  in  an  orderly 
whirlwind,  are  supposed  to  have  overwhelmed 
and  stunned  the  power  of  spiritual  belief  in 
man.  The  account  seems  to  me  incorrect  and 
unconvincing.  I  observe  that  precisely  the 
same  argument  was  used  by  Job  and  Isaiah 
and  the  Psalmists  to  lead  to  a  conclusion  of 
faith.  The  striking  disproportion  between 
the  littleness  of  man  and  the  greatness  of  the 
stars  was  to  them  a  demonstration  of  the  ne- 
cessity of  religion  to  solve  the  equation.  They 
saw  in  the  heavens  the  glory  of  God.  And  if 
man  to-day  knows  vastly  more  of  the  heavens, 
does  not  that  put  him  in  position  to  receive  a 
larger  and  loftier  vision  of  the  glory  ? 


12 


An  Age  of  Doubt 


Devout  men 
of  pure  sci- 
ence. 


The  arro- 
gance of 
science 
falsely  so- 
called. 


We  observe,  moreover,  that  it  is  just  in  those 
departments  of  science  where  the  knowledge  of 
the  magnitude  and  splendid  order  of  the  physi- 
cal universe  is  most  clear  and  exact,  namely,  in 
astronomy  and  mathematics,  that  we  find  the 
most  illustrious  men  of  science  who  have  not 
been  sceptics  but  sincere  and  steadfast  believ- 
ers in  the  Christian  religion.  Kepler  and 
Newton  were  men  of  faith.  The  most  brill- 
iant galaxy  of  mathematicians  ever  assembled 
at  one  time  and  place  was  at  the  University  of 
Cambridge  in  the  latter  half  of  this  century. 
Of  these  "  Sir  W.  Thomson,  Sir  George  Stokes, 
Professors  Tait,  Adams,  Clerk-Maxwell,  and 
Cayley  —  not  to  mention  a  number  of  lesser 
lights,  such  as  Routh,  Todhunter,  Ferrers,  etc. 
—  were  all  avowed  Christians."1  Surely  it 
needs  no  further  proof  to  show  that  the  pur- 
suit of  pure  science  does  not  necessarily  tend 
to  scepticism. 

No,  we  must  look  more  closely  and  distin- 
guish more  clearly  in  order  to  discover  in  the 
scientific  activities  of  the  age  a  cause  of  the 
prevailing  doubt.  And  if  we  do  this  I  think 
we  shall  find  it  in  the  fallacy  of  that  kind  of 
science  which  mistakes  itself  for  omniscience. 


1  George  John  Romanes,  M.A.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.,  Thoughts 
on  Eeligion  (Chicago,  1895),  p.  147. 


An  Age  of  Doubt  13 

u  What  we  see  is  the  pretence  of  certain  sci- 
ences to  represent  in  themselves  all  human 
knowledge.  And  as  outside  of  knowledge 
there  is  no  longer,  in  the  eyes  of  science  thus 
curtailed,  any  means  for  man  to  come  in  con- 
tact with  the  realities,  we  see  the  pretence 
advanced  by  some  that  all  reality  and  all  life 
should  be  reduced  to  that  which  they  have  ver- 
ified. Outside  of  this  there  are  only  dreams 
and  illusions.  This  is  indeed  too  much.  It  is 
no  longer  science,  but  scientific  absolutism."1 

"  The  history  of  the  natural  sciences,"  said 
Du  Bois-Reymond  in  1877,  "is  the  veritable 
history  of  mankind."  "The  world,"  saj^s  an- 
other, "  is  made  of  atoms  and  ether,  and  there 
is  no  room  for  ghosts."  M.  Berthelot  in  the 
preface  to  his  Origines  de  Valchimie,  modestly 
claims  that  "  the  world  to-day  is  without  mys- 
teries " ;  meaning  thereby,  I  suppose,  that 
there  is  nothing  in  existence,  from  the  crys- 
tallization of  a  diamond  to  the  character  of  a 
saint,  which  cannot  be  investigated  and  ex- 
plained by  means  of  a  crucible,  a  blow-pipe,  a 
microscope,  and  a  few  other  tools. 

This   is   simply  begging   the   question   of   a  An  immense 
spiritual  world  in  the  negative.     It  is  an  im- 

1  Charles  "Wagner,  Youth,  translated  from  the  French  by 
Ernest  Kedwood  (New  York,  1893),  p.  28. 


14  An  Age  of  Doubt 

mense  and  stupefying  assumption.  It  is  a 
claim  to  solve  the  problems  of  the  inner  life 
by  suppressing  them.  This  claim  is  not  in  any 
sense  necessary  to  the  existence  of  science,  nor 
to  any  degree  supported  by  the  work  which 
it  has  actually  accomplished.  But  it  is  made 
with  a  calm  assurance  which  imposes  power- 
fully upon  the  popular  mind ;  and,  being  made 
in  the  name  of  science,  it  carries  with  it  an 
appearance  of  authority  borrowed  from  the 
great  service  which  science  has  rendered  to 
humanity  by  its  discoveries  in  the  sphere  oi 
the  visible. 

Results  of  The  result  of  this  petitio  principii  in  the 
sump-  mjn(js  of  those  who  accept  it  fully  and  carry 
it  out  to  its  logical  conclusion,  is  a  definite 
system  of  metaphysical  negation  which  goes 
under  the  various  names  of  Naturalism,  Posi- 
tivism, Empiricism,  and  Agnosticism.  Its  re- 
sult in  the  minds  of  those  who  accept  it 
partially  and  provisionally,  but  lack  the  abil- 
ity or  the  inclination  to  formulate  it,  is  the 
development  of  a  sceptical  temper.  Its  result 
in  the  minds  of  those  who  are  unconsciously 
affected  by  it,  through  those  profound  instincts 
of  sympathy  and  involuntary  imitation  which 
influence  all  men,  is  an  attitude,  —  more  or 
less  sincere,  more  or  less  consistent  and  con- 


UP 

An  Age  of  Doubt  15 

tinuous, —  an  attitude  of  doubt.  The  spirit 
of  the  age  tacitly  divides  all  the  various 
beliefs  which  are  held  among  men  into  two 
classes.  Those  which  are  supported  by  sci- 
entific proof  must  be  accepted.  Those  which 
are  not  thus  supported  either  must  be  re- 
jected, or  may  safely  and  properly  be  disre- 
garded as  matters  of  no  consequence. 


in 

Now    this    general    scepticism,    in    all    its  The  mirror 
shades  and  degrees,  from  the  most  clear,  self-  ^ndthe^ 
conscious,  and  aggressive,  to  the  most  vague,  shadow  of 
diffused,  and   deprecatory,   is  reflected  in  the  G 
productions  of  current  literature.     Never  was 
literary  art  more   perfect,  more  accomplished, 
more  versatile  and  successful  than  in  the  pres- 
ent age.    Never  have  its  laws  been  more  widely 
understood  and  its  fascinations  more  potently 
exercised.     Never  has  it  evoked  more  magical 
and   charming  forms  to   float  above  an  abyss 
of  disenchantment  and  nothingness. 

In  the  lay  sermons  and  essays  of  Huxley 
and  Tyndall  and  Frederic  Harrison  and  W.  K. 
Clifford,  scepticism  appears  militant  and  trench- 
ant. These  knights-errant  of  Doubting  Castle 
are  brilliantly  equipped  as  men  of  war;  and 


16  An  Age  of  Doubt 

even  when  they  fall  foul  of  each  other,  as  they 
often  do,  the  ground  of  the  conflict  is  an  accu- 
sation of  infidelity  to  the  principles  of  unbelief, 
and  its  object  is  to  drive  the  adversary  back 
into  a  more  complete  and  consistent  negation. 

Over  the  fragmentary  but  majestic  life- 
philosophies  of  Carlyle  and  Emerson,  lying 
in  the  disarray  of  stones  hewn  for  a  temple 
yet  unbuilt,  imaginative  scepticism  hangs  like 
a  cloud.  Over  Carlyle,  it  is  the  shadow  of 
a  noonday  tempest,  full  of  darkness  and  tu- 
mult and  muttering  thunder.  Over  Emerson, 
it  floats  like  a  cumulus  of  evening  vapours, 
luminous  and  beautiful,  alluringly  transfigured 

"  In  the  golden  lightning 
Of  the  sunken  sun."  * 

In  the  vivid  and  picturesque  historical 
studies  of  Renan  and  Froude,  scepticism  is 
at  once  ironical  and  idealistic,  destructive  and 
dogmatic.  In  the  penetrative  and  intelligent 
critiques  of  Scherer  and  Morley,  it  adheres 
with  proud  but  illogical  persistence  to  the 
ethical  consequences  of  the  faith  with  which 
logic  has  broken :  like  a  son  disinherited,  but 
resolved  to  maintain  the  right  of  possession 
by  the  strong  arm. 

1  Shelley,  "  Ode  to  a  Skylark." 


An  Age  of  Doubt  17 

In  the  novels  of  unflinching  and  unblushing  Fiction 
naturalism, — like  those  of  Zola  and  Maupassant 
and  the  later  works  of  Thomas  Hardy,  scepticism 
speaks  with  a  harsh  and  menacing  accent  of  the 
emptiness  of  all  life  and  the  futility  of  all 
endeavour.  In  the  psychological  romances  of 
Flaubert  and  Bourget  and  Spielhagen,  George 
Eliot  and  Mrs.  Humphry  Ward,  it  holds  the 
mirror  up  to  human  nature  to  disclose  a  face 
darkened  with  inconsolable  regret  for  lost 
dreams.  Far  apart  as  Madame  Bovary  and 
Cosmopolis,  Problematische  Naturen  and  Middle- 
march  and  Robert  Elsmere  may  be  in  many  of 
their  features,  do  they  not  wear  the  same  ex- 
pression,—  the  cureless  melancholy  of  disil- 
lusion ? 

Fiction  in  its  more  superficial  form,  dealing 
only  with  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  so- 
cial drama,  and  relying  for  its  interest  mainly 
upon  local  colour  and  the  charm  of  incident 
narrated  with  vivacity  and  grace,  betrays  its 
scepticism  by  a  serene,  unconscious  disregard 
of  the  part  which  religion  plays  in  real  life. 
In  how  many  of  the  lighter  novels  of  the  day 
do  we  find  any  recognition,  even  between  the 
lines,  of  the  influence  which  the  idea  of  God  or 
its  absence,  the  practice  of  prayer  or  its  neg- 


18  An  Age  of  Doubt 

lect,  actually  exercise  upon  the  character  and 
conduct  of  men  ?  Take,  for  example,  Trilby,1  as 
the  type  of  a  clever  book  carelessly  written  for 
the  thoughtless  public  of  a  passing  moment.  It. 
w  incredibly  credulous  in  regard  to  the  dramatic 
possibilities  of  hypnotism.  It  is  pitifully  in- 
adequate in  its  conception  of  the  actual  poten- 
cies of  religion  ;  and  it  uses  Christianity  chiefly 
as  a  subject  for  caricature  in  the  style  of  the 
illustrated  newspapers,  which  are  called  comic. 
Poetry  de-  Poetry  has  always  been  the  most  direct  and 
tpondent.  intimate  utterance  of  the  human  heart.  And 
it  is  in  poetry  that  we  hear  to-day  the  voice 
of  scepticism  most  clearly,  "making  abundant 
music  around  an  elementary  nihilism,  now 
stripped  naked."  2  Listen  to  its  sonorous  chant- 
ings  as  they  come  from  France  in  the  verse  of 
Leconte  de  Lisle,  celebrating  the  sombre  ritual 
of  human  automata  before  the  altar  of  the  un- 
known and  almighty  tyrant,  who  agitates  them 
endlessly  for  his  own  amusement.  Listen  to 
its  delicate  and  decadent  lyrics,  as  Charles 
Baudelaire  sings  his  defeat  in  life  and  his 
thirst  for  annihilation. 

"  Morne  esprit,  autref ois  amoureux  de  la  lutte, 
L'Espoir  dont  1'eperon  attisait  ton  ardeur 

1  George  Du  Maurier,  Trilby  (Harpers,  1895). 

2  Paul  Desjardins,  Le  Devoir  Present  (Paris,  1892),  p.  65. 


An  Age  of  Doubt  19 

Ne  vent  plus  t'enfourcher.     Couche  toi  sans  pudeur, 
Vieux  cheval  dont  le  pied  a  chaque  obstacle  butte. 

Re*signe-toi,  mon  coeur,  dors  ton  sommeil  de  brute. 

Et  le  Temps  m'engloutit  minute  par  minute 
Comme  la  neige  immense  un  corps  pris  de  roideur : 
Je  contemple  d'en  haut  le  globe  en  sa  rondeur 
Et  je  n'y  eherche  plus  1'abri  d'une  cahute ! 

Avalanche,  veux  tu  m'emporter  dans  ta  chute?" l 

Turn  to  England  and  hear  its  musical  con- 
fession in  the  cool,  sad,  melodious  tones  of 
Matthew  Arnold,  no  enemy  of  faith,  but  her 
disenchanted  lover. 

"  Forgive  me,  masters  of  the  mind, 
At  whose  behest  I  long  ago 
So  much  unlearned,  so  much  resigned  — 
I  come  not  here  to  be  your  foe ; 
I  seek  these  anchorites  not  in  ruth, 
To  curse  and  to  deny  your  truth ; 

Not  as  their  friend,  or  child,  I  speak 

But  as  on  some  far  northern  strand, 

Thinking  of  his  own  gods,  a  Greek, 

In  pity  and  mournful  awe  might  stand 

Before  a  fallen  Runic  stone,  — 

For  both  were  faiths,  and  both  are  gone.'* a 

There  is  a  poem  by  Tennyson  (who  never 
broke  with  faith,  though  he  felt  the  strain  of 

1  Charles  Baudelaire,  Fleurs  du  Mai  (Paris,  1888),  p.  205. 
»LegoutduNe"ant." 

2  Matthew  Arnold,  Poems  (New  York,  Macmillan,  1878), 
p.  337.     **  Stanzas  from  the  Grande  Chartreuse." 


20  An  Age  of  Doubt 

doubt),   in   which  he   describes   with    intense 

dramatic   sympathy  the   finality  of   scepticism 

in   the   human   soul.     It  is  called  "Despair." 

A  picture  of   There  is  another  poem,  called  "Sea  Dreams," 

the  sea  of         .  ,  .  .   .  .,         .   .  ,         . 

doubt.  m  which  he  gives  a  vision  of  the  rising  tide  of 

doubt  as  it  threatens  to  undermine  and  over- 
whelm the  beliefs  of  the  past.  The  woman  is 
telling  her  husband  the  dream  which  came  to 
her  in  the  night  as  she  watched  by  their  sick 
child. 

"  But  round  the  North,  a  light, 
A  belt,  it  seem'd,  of  luminous  vapour,  lay, 
And  ever  in  it  a  low  musical  note 
Swell'd  up  and  died ;  and,  as  it  swell'd,  a  ridge 
Of  breaker  issued  from  the  belt,  and  still 
Grew  with  the  growing  note,  and  when  the  note 
Had  reach'd  a  thunderous  fulness,  on  those  cliffs 
Broke,  mixt  with  awful  light  (the  same  as  that 
Living  within  the  belt)  whereby  she  saw 
That  all  those  lines  of  cliffs  were  cliffs  no  more, 
But  huge  cathedral  fronts  of  every  age, 
Grave,  florid,  stern,  as  far  as  eye  could  see, 
One  after  one :  and  then  the  great  ridge  drew, 
Lessening  to  the  lessening  music,  back, 
And  passed  into  the  belt  and  swell'd  again 
Slowly  to  music  :  ever  when  it  broke 
The  statues,  king,  or  saint,  or  founder,  fell ; 
Then  from  the  gaps  and  chasms  of  ruin  left 
Came  men  and  women  in  dark  clusters  round, 
Some  crying,  '  Set  them  up !  they  shall  not  fall ! ' 
And  others,  '  Let  them  lie,  for  they  have  fall'n.' 
And  still  they  strove  and  wrangled :  .  .  . 
.  .  .  and  ever  as  tjieir  shrieks 


An  Age  of  Doubt  21 

Ran  highest  up  the  gamut,  that  great  wave 
Returning,  while  none  mark'd  it,  on  the  crowd 
Broke,  mixt  with  awful  light,  and  show'd  their  eyes 
Glaring,  and  passionate  looks,  and  swept  away 
The  men  of  flesh  and  blood,  and  men  of  stone, 
To  the  waste -deeps  together." l 

It  was  but  a  dream,  dispelled  from  the  mind  The  pity  of 
of  her  to  whom  it  came  in  the  night-watches  lt' 
by  the  crying  of  her  little  child,  and  soon  for- 
gotten in  the  sweet  reality  of  human  love. 
Only  a  dream,  but  how  many  souls  have  felt 
the  vague  sadness,  the  haunting,  helpless  pity 
and  fear  of  a  like  vision,  looking  out  upon  the 
landscape  of  man's  inner  life,  and  seeing  the 
ancient  landmarks  slowly  melted  or  swiftly 
swept  away,  the  shrines  of  memory  shaken 
and  removed,  the  fair  images  of  immortal  de- 
sire and  aspiration  dissolving  and  disappearing 
in  the  onward  waves,  silently  creeping,  or  surg- 
ing with  mysterious  and  inarticulate  music  out 
of  the  waste  deep  of  doubt,  — 

"  The  unplumbed,  salt,  estranging  sea."  2 

Who  can  think  of  the  sharp  anguish  and  dull 
grief  that  have  fallen  upon  innumerable  hearts 
through  the  loss  of  their  most  precious  faiths  ; 

1  Tennyson's  Poetical  Works  (Macmillan,  1890),  p.  138. 

2  Matthew  Arnold,  "To  Marguerite."     Poems  (Macrnj}- 
lan?  1878),  p.  18±. 


22  An  Age  of  Doubt 

who  can  think  of  the  gray,  formless,  ever-mov- 
ing, yet  immovable  flood  of  mordant  gloom  that 
has  covered  so  many  once  bright  and  fertile 
fields  of  human  hope  and  endeavour,  so  many 
once  secure  and  peaceful  homes  of  human  trust 
and  confidence,  —  who  can  think  of  these  things, 
even  though  his  own  standpoint  be  still  un- 
touched, his  own  faith-dwelling  founded  upon 
an  untrembling  rock  far  above  the  tide,  with- 
out a  sorrowful  perturbation  of  spirit  and  a 
deep,  inward  sense  of  compassionate  distress 
and  dread  ?  We  stand  upon  the  shore,  but  we 
stand  beside  the  sea.  And  we  look  out  upon 
it,  as  Smile  Littre  sadly  wrote,1  like  the  women 
of  Troy,  whom  the  Roman  poet  pictured  gaz- 
ing at  its  mighty  currents  and  engulfing  waves : 

"Pontum  adspectdbant  flentes" 


IV 

Sympathy  It  is  with  no  careless  and  exaggerating  hand, 
it  is  in  no  unsympathetic  and  condemning  spirit, 
that  I  have  tried  to  draw  this  picture  of  the 
sceptical  age  in  which  we  live.  Its  faults,  its 
perils,  are  mine  and  yours.  The  preacher  who 
assumes  a  supercilious  and  damnatory  attitude 


Littr6,    Conservation,   Revolution,  Positivisme, 
Bemarques,  p.  430. 


An  Age  of  Doubt  23 

towards  the  doubts  of  the  present  time  can  do 
little  to  relieve,  and  may  do  much  to  increase 
them.  If  we  desire  to  be  true  ministers  to  a 
doubting  age,  we  must  put  ourselves  in  the  posi- 
tion of  Maurice,  who  said,  "I  wish  to  confess 
the  sins  of  the  time  as  my  own."1  So  far  as 
current  scepticism  has  its  source  in  evil,  it  flows 
from  faults  of  which  we  all  partake,  —  the  pride 
of  intellect,  the  haste  of  judgment,  the  prefer- 
ence of  the  seen  to  the  unseen,  the  impatience 
of  ignorance,  the  vain  demand  of  perfection  in 
the  finite  comprehension  of  the  infinite,  and  the 
disloyalty  of  reason  to  conscience. 

But  indeed  this  is  not  the  point  of  view  from  Lessons  of 

which  we  speak.     This  lecture  is  not  an  indict-  encowrasre- 
*  ment. 

ment.  It  is  a  diagnosis.  Doubt,  as  we  are 
thinking  of  it,  is  not  a  crime,  but  a  malady. 
And  if  we  are  to  have  any  hope  or  power  of 
staying  its  progress  and  healing  its  ravages,  we 
must  not  only  be  sympathetic  in  our  understand- 
ing of  it,  but  we  must  also  look  through  it, 
earnestly  and  patiently,  to  see  whether  there 
are  not  some  favourable  symptoms,  some  signs 
of  enduring  vitality,  some  promises  of  returning 
health  and  strength  in  the  spirit  of  the  age. 
Of  these  it  seems  to  me  that  there  are  three, 

1  The  Life  of  Frederick  Denison  Maurice  (New  York, 
Scribners,  1884),  vol.  ii.,  p.  235. 


24 


An  Age  of  Doubt 


Pessimism. 


Cheerful 
scepticism 
almost  ex- 
tinct, 


so  evident  and  so  important,  that  we  ought  not 
to  overlook  them.  First,  the  acknowledged 
discontent  and  pain  of  unbelief;  second,  the 
practical  recoil  of  some  of  the  finest  minds 
from  the  void  of  absolute  scepticism  ;  third, 
the  persistent  desire  of  many  doubting  spirits 
to  serve  mankind  by  love,  self-sacrifice,  and 
ethical  endeavour.  In  other  words,  I  would 
read  the  lesson  of  encouragement  in  the  suffer- 
ings of  doubt,  in  the  doubts  of  doubt,  and  in 
the  splendid  moral  inconsistencies  of  doubt. 

Begin,  then,  with  pain,  which  is  not  only  a 
warning  of  disease,  but  also  a  sign  of  life.  The 
pessimism  which  goes  hand  in  hand  with  scep- 
ticism in  this  nineteenth  century  is  a  cry  of 
suffering.  The  closely  reasoned  philosophies  of 
Schopenhauer  and  Hartmann,  with  their  prem- 
isses of  misery  and  conclusions  of  despair,  are 
only  the  scientific  statement  of  a  widely  diffused 
sentiment  of  dissatisfaction  and  despondency  in 
regard  to  life.1  Their  spread,  like  that  of  some 
apparently  new  disease,  is  due  to  the  fact  that 
they  give  a  name  to  something  from  which  men 
have  long  suffered. 

It  seemed  at  one  time  as  if  the  course  of 
modern  scepticism  was  to  be  free  from  sadness, 
a  painless  malady.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
1  James  Sully,  Pessimism,  pp.  2,  3. 


An  Age  of  Doubt       >  •*  25 

century  the  tone  of  infidelity  was  jubilant  and 
triumphant.  Percy  Bysshe  Shelley  walked  into 
the  inn  at  Montanvert  and  wrote  his  name  in 
the  visitors'  book,  adding  "  democrat,  philan- 
thropist, atheist,"  —  as  if  it  were  a  record  of 
victory  and  a  title  of  glory.  This  cheerful 
type  of  scepticism  still  survives,  here  and  there, 
in  a  few  men  who  insist  that  the  process  of  dis- 
enchantment is  pleasant  and  joyous,  and  that 
the  optimism  which  belonged  to  faith  may  re- 
main while  the  faith  itself  disappears.  It  is 
like  the  smile  of  the  famous  cat,  in  the  child's 
story-book,  which  broadened  and  brightened 
while  the  cat  faded,  until  finally  the  animal  was 
gone  and  nothing  but  the  grin  was  left. 

But  for  the  most  part  modern  doubt  shows  a  TJie  sorrow 
sad  and  pain-drawn  face,  heavy  with  grief  and 
dark  with  apprehension.  There  is  an  illustra- 
tion of  this  change  in  the  life  of  George  Eliot. 
In  her  girlhood  she  passed  suddenly,  by  an  un-  ^ 
conditional  surrender,  out  of  a  warm  faith  in 
Evangelical  Christianity  into  the  coldest  kind 
of  rational  scepticism.  She  writes  of  the  dull, 
and  now  forgotten,  book  which  wrought  this 
change,  Charles  Hennell's  Inquiry  concerning 
the  Origin  of  Christianity,  with  strange  and  al- 
most fantastic  merriment:  "Mr.  Hennell  ought 
to  be  one  of  the  happiest  of  men  that  he  has 


26  An  Age  of  Doubt 

done  such  a  life's  work.  I  am  sure  if  I  had 
written  such  a  book  I  should  be  invulnerable 
to  all  the  arrows  of  all  the  gods  and  goddesses. 
The  book  is  full  of  wit  to  me.  It  gives  me  that 
exquisite  kind  of  laughter  which  comes  from 
the  gratification  of  the  reasoning  faculties."1 
But  the  arrows  which  she  despised  struck 
home,  ere  life  was  ended,  to  her  own  heart. 

"  I  remember,"  writes  Mr.  F.  W.  H.  Myers, 
"how  at  Cambridge  I  walked  with  her  once 
in  the  Fellows'  Garden  of  Trinity,  on  an  even- 
ing of  rainy  May,  and  she,  stirred  somewhat 
beyond  her  wont,  and  taking  as  her  text 
the  three  words  which  have  been  used  so 
often  as  the  inspiring  trumpet-calls  of  men, 
—  the  words  God,  Immortality,  Duty,  —  pro- 
nounced, with  terrible  earnestness,  how  in- 
conceivable was  the  first,  how  unbelievable 
was  the  second,  and  how  peremptory  and  abso- 
lute the  third.  Never,  perhaps,  had  sterner 
accents  affirmed  the  sovereignty  of  imper- 
sonal and  unrecompensing  law.  I  listened  and 
night  fell ;  her  grave,  majestic  countenance 
turned  towards  me  like  a  Sibyl's  in  the  gloom  ; 
it  was  as  though  she  withdrew  from  my  grasp, 
one  by  one,  the  two  scrolls  of  promise,  and 

1  George  Eliot's  Life,  as  related  in  her  Letters  (New  York, 
Harpers),  vol.  i.,  p.  119. 


An  Age  of  Doubt  27 

left  me  the  third   scroll  only,  awful  with  in- 
evitable fate."1 

An  inevitable  fate,  seen  through  the  gloom  The  sad  as- 
of  falling  night,  — that  indeed  is  the  aspect  of  *>e 
life  which  the  literature  of  doubt  displays  to 
us.  A  gray  shadow  of  melancholy  spreads 
over  the  questioning,  uncertain,  disillusioned 
age  ;  languid  sighs  of  weariness  breathe  from 
its  salons  and  palaces.  Bitter  discontent  mut- 
ters in  its  workshops  and  tenements.  "Never, 
I  believe,"  says  Paul  Desjardins,  "have  men 
been  more  universally  sad  than  in  the  present 
time."  And  then  he  adds,  with  keen  insight, 
"Our  misery  lies  in  feeling  that  we  are  less 
men  than  we  were  sixty  years  ago."2  Human 
life  has  been  unspeakably  impoverished  and 
narrowed  by  the  loss  of  faith.  Comedy  has 
become  tragic,  and  tragedy  has  grown  mean 
and  sordid.3  Men  have  lost  the  sound  of  a 
Divine  voice  in  the  story  of  their  existence 
and  learned  to  listen  to  it  as 

"a  tale 

Told  by  an  idiot,  full  of  sound  and  fury 

Signifying  nothing." 

1  R.  H.   Button,  Modern  Guides  of  English  Thought 
(London,  Macmillan,  1887),  p.  262. 

2  Le  Devoir  Present,  pp.  17, 19. 

8  See  the  plays  of  Ibsen :   Ghosts,  A  Doll's  House,  The 
Wild  Duck,  etc. 


28  An  Age  of  Doubt 

Love  itself,  the  great  purifier  and  ennobler,  has 
been  transformed  in  the  subtle  analysis  of  sex- 
ual passion,  from  the  sea-born  Venus,  pure  and 
radiant  with  immortal  youth,  to  a  dirt-engen- 
dered goddess,  concealing  her  secret  ugliness 
with  illusory  and  artificial  charms,  and  presid- 
ing with  malignant  power  over  the  lower  cur- 
rents of  man's  being,  —  a  veritable  Cloacina  of 
human  life.1 

The  mean-  The  thought  of  "the  grandeur  and  misery 
an'  of  man,"  as  Pascal  conceived  it,  was  painful 
but  elevating.  The  conception  of  the  insig- 
nificance and  misery  of  man  as  scepticism  pre- 
sents it,  is  painful  and  dispiriting.  Born  o£ 
blind  force  and  unconscious  matter,  quickened 
by  some  mysterious  cruelty  to  a  consciousness 
of  his  own  origin  and  a  foreboding  of  his  inex- 
plicable and  fruitless  destiny,  he  "drees  his 
weird,"  between  two  fathomless  abysses  of 
gloom,  as  one  who  is  indeed  weary  and  heavy- 
laden.  The  music  with  which  he  accompanies 
his  march  towards  the  blank  and  dismal  bourn, 
rolls  and  clashes  through  the  literature  of  every 
land  with  deep  and  mournful  discords,  as  if 
man  had  at  last  invented  that  strange  organ  of 

1  Bourget,   Psychologic   Contemporaine,  pp,  5,  8. 


An  Age  of  Doubt  29 

expression  which  a  satirist  has  called  "  the  Mis- 
erophon."1 

"  This  philosophy,"  says  Stendhal,  comment-  The  nausea 
ing  upon  the  last  reflections  of  his  hero  in  Rouge 
et  Noir,  "  was  perhaps  true,  but  it  was  of  such  a 
nature  as  to  make  one  long  for  death."  And 
then  the  critic  from  whom  I  have  quoted  these 
words,  adds  his  own  commentary.  "Do  you 
perceive,  at  the  close  of  this  work,  the  most 
complete  which  the  author  has  left,  the  break- 
ing of  the  tragic  dawn  of  pessimism  ?  It  rises, 
this  dawn  of  blood  and  tears,  and,  like  the  clear- 
ness of  a  new-born  day,  it  overspreads  with 
crimson  hues  the  loftiest  spirits  of  our  age, 
those  whose  thoughts  are  at  the  summit,  those 
to  whom  the  eyes  of  the  men  of  to-morrow  lift 
themselves,  —  religiously.  I  am  come  in  this 
series  of  psychological  studies  to  the  fifth  and 
last  of  the  personages  whom  I  propose  to  ana- 
lyze. I  have  examined  a  poet,  Baudelaire ;  a 
historian,  Renan ;  a  romancer,  Flaubert ;  a 
philosopher,  Taine ;  I  have  just  examined  one 
of  these  composite  artists  in  whom  the  critic 
and  the  imaginative  writer  are  closely  united  ; 
and  I  have  found  in  these  five  Frenchmen  of 

1  Anton  Bettelheim,  article  in  Cosmopolis,  January,  1896. 


30  An  Age  of  Doubt 

such  importance,  the  same  philosophy  of  dis- 
gust with  the  universal  nothingness."1 
Melancholia.  If  we  turn  to  Russia,  which  has  given  us 
some  of  the  most  brilliant  and  influential, 
though  undisciplined,  writers  of  modern  fic- 
tion, do  we  not  hear,  in  an  accent  harsher 
and  more  formidable,  the  same  conclusions, 
the  same  cries  of  nausea  over  the  inextricable 
confusion  and  vain  efforts  of  human  life?  If 
we  turn  to  England,  do  we  not  see  the  same 
cloud  of  melancholy,  less  threatening,  less 
angry,  but  no  less  dark,  rising  from  the 
chasm  which  doubt  has  made  between  man's 
inner  life  and  the  world  as  scientific  posi- 
tivism pictures  it?  How  mournful  is  the 
voice  in  which  W.  K.  Clifford  proclaims, 
"  The  Great  Companion  is  dead !  "  How  dark 
with  silent,  passionate  grief  is  that  lonely 
wood  in  which  "Robert  Elsmere"  feels  him- 
self going  blind  to  the  dearest  visions  of  his 
former  faith.2  How  black  the  air  in  which 
"Jude  the  Obscure"  breathes  out  the  last 
throbbings  of  his  insurgent  heart  in  curses 
upon  his  sordid  and  desperate  fate  ! 3  Let  a 

1  Paul  Bourget,  Psychologic  Contemporaine,  p.  321. 

2  Mrs.   Humphry  Ward,   Eobert   Elsmere   (Macmillan, 
1888),  vol.  ii. ,  chap.  xxvi. 

8  Thomas  Hardy,  Jude  the  Obscure  (Harpers,  1896). 


An  Age  of  Doubt  31 

poet,  with  that  sublime  insight  of  genius 
which  endures  even  amid  the  ruins  created 
by  its  own  destructive  passion,  speak  the 
last  word  of  doubt,  —  the  epitaph  of  The 
City  of  Dreadful  Night.  The  portentous  fig- 
ure of  "  Melancholia  "  sits  enthroned  above  her 
vast  metropolis. 

"  The  moving  Moon  and  stars  from  east  to  west 
Circle  before  her  in  the  sea  of  air ; 
Shadows  and  gleams  glide  round  her  solemn  rest. 
Her  subjects  often  gaze  up  to  her  there : 
The  strong  to  drink  new  strength  of  iron  endurance, 
The  weak,  new  terrors ;  all,  renewed  assurance 
And  confirmation  of  the  old  despair." l 

But  why  despair,  unless  indeed  because  Pain  gives 
man,  in  his  very  nature  and  inmost  essence, 
is  framed  for  an  immortal  hope?  No  other  hope. 
creature  is  filled  with  disgust  and  anger  by 
the  mere  recognition  of  its  own  environment 
and  the  realization  of  its  own  destiny.  This 
strange  issue  of  a  purely  physical  evolution 
in  a  profound  revolt  against  itself  is  incred- 
ibly miraculous.  Can  a  vast  universe  of  atoms 
and  ether,  unfolding  out  of  darkness  into  dark- 
ness, produce  at  some  point  in  its  progress, 
and  that  point  apparently  the  highest,  a  feel- 
ing of  profound  disappointment  with  its  par- 

i  James  Thomson,  The  City  of  Dreadful  Night,  xzi.  12. 


32  An  Age  of  Doubt 

tially  discovered  processes  and  resentful  grief 
at  its  dimly  foreseen  end?  To  believe  this 
would  require  a  monstrous  credulity !  Athe- 
ism does  not  touch  this  difficulty.  Agnosti- 
cism evades  it.  There  are  but  two  solutions 
which  really  face  the  facts.  One  is  the  black, 
unspeakable  creed  that  the  source  of  all  things 
is  an  unknown,  mocking,  malignant  Power, 
whose  last  and  most  cruel  jest  is  the  misery 
of  disenchanted  man.1  The  other  is  the  hope- 
ful creed  that  the  very  pain  which  man  suffers 
when  his  spiritual  nature  is  denied,  is  proof 
that  it  exists,  and  part  of  the  discipline  by 
which  a  truthful,  loving  God  would  lead  man 
to  Himself.  Let  the  world  judge  which  is 
the  more  reasonable  faith.  But  for  our  part, 
while  we  cling  to  the  creed  of  hope,  let  us 
not  fail  to  "cleave  ever  to  the  sunnier  side 
of  doubt,"  and  see  in  the  very  shadow  that 
it  casts  the  evidence  of  a  light  behind  and 
above  it.  Let  us  learn  the  meaning  of  that 
noble  word  of  St.  Augustine  :  Thou  hast  made 
us  for  Thyself,  and  unquiet  is  our  heart  until  it 
rests  in  Thee. 

1  "  It  must  have  been  an  ill-advised  God,  who  could  fall 
upon  no  better  amusement  than  the  transforming  of  Himself 
into  such  a  hungry  world  as  this,  which  is  utterly  miserable  and 
worse  than  none  at  all."  —  David  Friedrich  Strauss,  quoted 
in  The  British  Quarterly  Beview,  January,  1877,  p.  146. 


An  Age  of  Doubt  33 

Yes,   the    inquietude    of    the    heart    which  The  renal* 
doubt  has  robbed   of  its   faith  in   God,  is  an  *ance°S 

faith. 

evidence  that  scepticism  is  a  malady,  not  a 
normal  state.  The  sadness  of  our  times  under 
the  pressure  of  positive  disbelief  and  negative 
uncertainty  has  in  it  the  promise  and  potency 
of  a  return  to  health  and  happiness.  Already 
we  can  see,  if  we  look  with  clear  eyes,  the 
signs  of  what  I  have  dared  to  call  "the  re- 
action out  of  the  heart  of  a  doubting  age 
towards  the  Christianity  of  Christ  and  the 
faith  in  Immortal  Love."1 

Pagan  poets,  full  of  melancholy  beauty  and 
vague  regret  for  lost  ideals,  poets  of  decadence 
and  despondence,  the  age  has  born,  $o  sing  its 
grief  and  gloom.  But  its  two  great  singers, 
Tennyson  and  Browning,  strike  a  clearer  note 
of  returning  faith  and  hope.  "They  resume 
the  quest,  and  do  not  pause  until  they  find 
Him  whom  they  seek."  2  Pessimists  like  Hart- 
mann  work  back  unconsciously,  from  the  vague 
remoteness  of  pantheism,  far  in  the  direction, 
at  least,  of  a  theistic  view  of  the  universe. 
His  later  books  —  Religionsphilosophie  and 


1  The  Poetry  of  Tennyson  (New  York,  Scribners,  1889), 
p.  xiii. 

2  Vida  D.  Scudder,  The  Life  of  the  Spirit  in  the  Motern 
English  Poets  (Houghton,  Mifflin,  &  Co.,  1895),  p.  333. 


34  An  Age  of  Doubt 

Sellstersetzung  des  Christenthums  —  breathe  a 
different  spirit  from  his  Philosophic  des  Un- 
bewussten.1  One  of  the  most  cautious  of  our 
younger  students  of  philosophy  has  noted  with 
care,  in  a  recent  article,  the  indications  that 
"the  era  of  doubt  is  drawing  to  a  close."2  A 
statesman,  like  Signor  Crispi,  does  not  hesitate 
to  cut  loose  from  his  former  atheistic  connec- 
tions and  declare  that  "the  belief  in  God  is 
the  fundamental  basis  of  the  healthy  life  of 
the  people,  while  atheism  puts  in  it  the  germ 
of  an  irreparable  decay."  The  French  critic, 
M.  Edouard  Rod,  declares  that  "  only  religion 
can  regulate  at  the  same  time  human  thought 
and  human  action."3  Mr.  Benjamin  Kidd, 
from  the  side  of  English  sociology,  assures 
us  that  "since  man  became  a  social  creature, 
the  development  of  his  intellectual  character 
has  become  subordinate  to  the  development 
of  his  religious  character,"  and  concludes  that 
religion  affords  the  only  permanent  sanction 
for  progress.4  A  famous  biologist,  Romanes, 

1  James  Orr,  The  Christian  View  of  God  and  the  World 
(New  York,  Randolph,  1893),  pp.  456,  457. 

2  The  Methodist  Review,  January,  1896.     "The  Return 
to  Faith,"  by  Prof.  A.  C.  Armstrong,  Jr. 

8  Edouard  Rod,  Les  Idees  Morales  du  Temps  Present 
(Paris,  1894),  p.  304. 

4  Benjamin  Kidd,  Social  Evolution  (London,  1894), 
p.  245. 


An  Age  of  Doubt  86 

who  once  professed  the  most  absolute  rejec- 
tion of  revealed,  and  the  most  unqualified 
scepticism  of  natural,  religion,  thinks  his  way 
soberly  back  from  the  painful  void  to  a  posi- 
tion where  he  confesses  that  "  it  is  reasonable 
to  be  a  Christian  believer,"  and  dies  in  the 
full  communion  of  the  church  of  Jesus.1 

All  along  the  line,  we  see  men  who  once 
thought  it  necessary  or  desirable  to  abandon 
forever  the  soul's  abode  of  faith  in  the  unseen, 
returning  by  many  and  devious  ways  from  the 
far  country  of  doubt,  driven  by  homesickness 
and  hunger  to  seek  some  path  which  shall  at 
Jeast  bring  them  in  sight  of  a  Father's  house. 

And  meanwhile  we  hear  the  conscience,  the 
ethical  instinct  of  mankind,  asserting  itself 
with  splendid  courage  and  patience,  even  in 
those  who  have  as  yet  found  no  sure  ground 
for  it  to  stand  upon.  There  is  a  sublime  con- 
tradiction between  the  positivist's  view  of  man 
as  "  the  hero  of  a  lamentable  drama  played  in 
an  obscure  corner  of  the  universe,  in  virtue  of 
blind  laws,  before  an  indifferent  nature,  and 
with  annihilation  for  its  denouement,"2  and  the 
doctrine  that  it  is  his  supreme  duty  to  sacrifice 
himself  for  the  good  of  humanity.  Yet  many 

1  Thoughts  on  Religion,  p.  196. 

2  Madame  L.  Ackermann,  Ma  Vie  (Paris,  1885),  p.  xviii. 


36  An  Age  of  Doubt 

of  the  sceptical  thinkers  of  the  age  do  not 
stumble  at  the  contradiction.  They  hold  fast 
to  love  and  justice  and  moral  enthusiasm  even 
though  they  suspect  that  they  themselves  are 
the  products  of  a  nature  which  is  blind  and 
dumb  and  heartless  and  stupid.  Never  have 
the  obligations  of  self-restraint,  and  helpful- 
ness, and  equity,  and  universal  brotherhood 
been  preached  more  fervently  than  by  some  of 
the  English  agnostics. 

The  new  In  France  a  new  crusade  has  risen ;  a  cru- 
CFrance  ™  sa(^e  w^cn  see^s  to  gather  into  its  hosts  men 
of  all  creeds  and  men  of  none,  and  which  pro- 
claims as  its  object  the  recovery  of  the  sacred 
places  of  man's  spiritual  life,  the  holy  land  in 
which  virtue  shines  forever  by  its  own  light, 
and  the  higher  impulses  of  our  nature  are  in- 
spired, invincible,  and  immortal.  On  its  ban- 
ner M.  Paul  Desjardins  writes  the  word  of 
Tolstoi,  "Ilfaut  avoir  une  dme;  it  is  necessary 
to  have  a  soul,"  and  declares  that  the  crusaders 
will  follow  it  wherever  it  leads  them.  "  For 
my  part,"  he  cries,  "  I  shall  not  blush  certainly 
to  acknowledge  as  sole  master  the  Chris*, 
preached  by  the  doctors.  I  shall  not  recoil  if 
my  premisses  force  me  to  believe,  at  last,  as 
Pascal  believed." 1 

1  l<e  Devoir  Present,  45. 


An  Age  of  Doubt  37 

In  our  own  land  such  a  crusade  does  not  yet  The  new 
appear  to  be  necessary.  The  disintegration  of 
faith  under  the  secret  processes  of  general 
scepticism  has  not  yet  gone  far  enough  to  make 
the  peril  of  religion  evident,  or  to  cause  a  new 
marshalling  of  hosts  to  recover  and  defend  the 
forsaken  shrines  of  man's  spiritual  life.  When 
the  process  which  is  now  subtly  working  in  so 
many  departments  of  our  literature  has  gone 
farther,  it  may  be  needful  to  call  for  such  a 
crusade.  If  so,  I  believe  it  will  come.  I  be- 
lieve that  the  leaders  of  thought,  the  artists, 
the  poets  of  the  future,  when  they  stand  face 
to  face  with  the  manifest  results  of  negation 
and  disillusion,  which  really  destroy  the  very 
sphere  in  which  alone  art  and  poetry  can  live, 
will  rise  to  meet  the  peril,  and  proclaim  anew 
with  one  voice  the  watchword,  "  It  is  necessary 
to  have  a  soul!  And  though  a  man  gain  the 
whole  world,  if  his  soul  is  lost,  it  shall  profit 
him  nothing."  But  meanwhile,  before  the  fol- 
lowing of  the  errors  of  France  in  literature  and 
art  has  led  us  to  that  point  of  spiritual  impov- 
erishment where  we  must  imitate  the  organized 
and  avowed  effort  to  recover  that  which  has 
been  lost,  we  see  a  new  crusade  of  another 
kind:  a  powerful  movement  of  moral  enthu- 
siasm, of  self-sacrifice,  of  altruism,  even  among 


38  An  Age  of  Doubt 

those  who  profess  to  be  out  of  sympathy  with 
Christianity,  which  is  a  sign  of  promise,  be- 
cause it  reveals  a  force  that  cries  out  for  faith, 
and  for  Christian  faith,  to  guide  and  direct  it. 
The  cry  for  Never  was  there  a  time  when  the  fine  aspira- 
ti°ns  °f  ^ne  young  manhood  and  young  woman- 
hood of  our  country  needed  a  more  inspiring 
and  direct  Christian  leadership.  The  indica- 
tions of  this  need  lie  open  to  our  sight  on  every 
side.  Here  is  a  company  of  refined  and  edu- 
cated people  going  down  to  make  a  college  set- 
tlement among  the  poor  and  ignorant,  to  help 
them  and  lift  them  up.  They  declare  that  it  is 
not  a  religious  movement,  that  there  is  to  be 
no  preaching  connected  with  it,  that  the  only 
faith  which  it  is  to  embody  is  faith  in  human- 
ity. They  choose  a  leader  who  has  only  that 
faith.  But  they  find,  under  his  guidance,  that 
the  movement  will  not  move,  that  the  work 
cannot  be  done,  that  it  faints  and  fails  because 
it  lacks  the  spring  of  moral  inspiration  which 
can  come  only  from  a  divine  and  spiritual 
faith.  And  they  are  forced  to  seek  a  new 
leader  who,  although  he  is  not  a  preacher,  yet 
carries  within  his  heart  that  power  of  religious 
conviction,  that  force  of  devotion  to  the  will  of 
God,  that  faith  in  the  living  and  supreme 
Christ,  which  is  in  fact  the  centre  of  Christian- 


An  Age  of  Doubt  39 

ity.  All  around  the  circle  of  human  doubt 
and  despair,  where  men  and  women  are  going 
out  to  enlighten  and  uplift  and  comfort  and 
strengthen  their  fellow-men  under  the  perplex- 
ities and  burdens  of  life,  we  hear  the  cry  for  a 
gospel  which  shall  be  divine,  and  therefore 
sovereign  and  unquestionable  and  sure  and  vic- 
torious. All  through  the  noblest  aspirations 
and  efforts  and  hopes  of  our  age  of  doubt,  we 
feel  the  longing,  and  we  hear  the  demand,  for 
a  new  inspiration  of  Christian  faith. 

These  are  the  signs  of  the  times.     Surely  we  The  signs  of 
must  take  note  of  them,  surely  we  must  labour  *' 
and  pray  to  understand  their  true  significance, 
if  we  are  to  say  anything  to  our  fellow-men 
which    shall  be   worth   our   saying   and  their 
hearing. 

Renan  made  a  strange  remark  not  long  be- 
fore his  death:  "I  fear  that  the  work  of  the 
Twentieth  Century  will  consist  in  taking  out 
of  the  waste-basket  a  multitude  of  excellent 
ideas  which  the  Nineteenth  Century  has  heed- 
lessly thrown  into  it."  The  sceptic's  fear  is 
the  believer's  hope.  Once  more  the  fields  are 
white  unto  the  harvest.  The  time  is  ripe; 
ripe  in  the  sorrow  of  scepticism,  ripe  in  the 
return  of  aspiration,  ripe  in  the  enthusiasm  of 


40  An  Age  of  Doubt 

humanity,  for  a  fenaissance  of   the   spiritual 
life. 

Already  the  horizon  brightens  with  the  tokens 
of  this  renaissance.  There  is  a  new  interest  in 
religion  as  the  most  living  of  all  topics.  There 
is  a  new  sense  of  its  vital  meaning  for  the  whole 
life  of  man.  There  is  a  new  determination  to 
apply  it  all  around  the  circle  of  human  respon- 
sibilities and  test  its  value  everywhere.  There 
is  a  new  cry  for  a  Christ  who  shall  fulfil  the 
hopes  of  all  the  ages.  There  is  a  new  love 
waiting  for  Him,  a  new  devotion  ready  to  fol- 
low His  call.  Doubt,  in  its  nobler  aspect, — 
honest,  unwilling,  morally  earnest  doubt,  —  has 
been  a  John  the  Baptist  to  prepare  the  way  for 
His  coming.  The  men  of  to-day  are  saying,  as 
certain  Greeks  said  to  apostles  of  old,  "  Sirs,  we 
would  see  Jesus."  The  disciple  who  can  lead 
the  questioning  spirits  to  Him,  is  the  man  who 
has  the  Gospel  for  an  Age  of  Doubt. 


n 

THE  GOSPEL  OF  A  PERSON 


Subtlest  thought  shall  fail  and  learning  falter, 
Churches  change,  forms  perish,  systems  go, 

But  our  human  needs,  they  will  not  alter, 
Christ  no  after  age  shall  e'er  outgrow. 

Yea,  Amen !     O  changeless  One,  Thou  only, 

Art  life's  guide  and  spiritual  goal, 
Thou  the  Light  across  the  dark  vale  lonely,  — 

Thou  the  eternal  haven  of  the  soul. 

—  JOHN  CAMPBELL  SHAIRP. 


II 

THE   GOSPEL  OF  A  PERSON 

THE  prevalence  and  the  quality  of  modern  How  shall 
doubt,  with  its  discontent  and  sadness,  its 
self-misgivings  and  reactions,  its  moral  incon- 
sistencies and  fine  enthusiasms,  bring  the 
preacher  who  is  alive  and  in  earnest,  face  to 
face  with  the  most  important  question  of  his 
life.  What  can  I  do,  what  ought  I  to  do,  as 
a  preacher,  to  meet  the  strange,  urgent,  com- 
plicated  needs  of  such  a  time  as  this? 

First  of  all,  as  a  man,  —  and  every  preacher 
ought  to  be  a  man,  though  not  every  man  is 
bound  to  be  a  preacher  —  as  a  man,  it  is  nec- 
essary to  lead  a  clean,  upright,  steadfast,  use- 
ful life,  purged  from  all  insincerity,  and  lifted 
above  all  selfishness,  and  especially  above  that 
form  of  religious  selfishness  which  is  the  beset- 
ting peril  of  those  who  feel  themselves  rich  in 
faith  in  the  midst  of  a  generation  that  has  been 
made  poor  by  unbelief.  Never  has  there  been  a 
time  when  character  and  conduct  counted  for 
.  43 


44  The  Gospel  of  a  Person 

more  than  they  do  to-day.  A  life  on  a  high 
level,  yet  full  of  helpful,  healing  sympathy 
for  all  life  on  its  lowest  levels,  is  the  first  debt 
which  we  owe  to  our  fellow-men  in  this  age. 

But  beyond  this,  is  there  not  something  per- 
sonal and  specific  which  the  conditions  of  the 
present  demand  from  us,  as  men  who  have  not 
only  the  common  duty  of  living,  but  also  the 
peculiar  vocation  of  speaking  directly  and  con- 
stantly to  the  inner  life  of  our  brothers  ?  We 
want  some  distinct  and  definite  message,  which 
is  to  be  clearly  formed  in  our  thought  and  feel- 
ing and  utterance,  as  the  central,  guiding,  domi- 
nating force  in  all  our  efforts  to  realize  the  fine 
aspiration  of  the  old  hymn : 

"  To  serve  the  present  age, 
My  calling  to  fulfil,  — 
Oh,  may  it  all  my  powers  engage 
To  do  my  Master's  will !  " 

Proposed  Now  the  moment  we  look  at  the  problem  in 

remedies  .  . 

insufficient,  "this  light,  we  see  that  there  are  various  lines 
of  activity  open  to  us,  and  along  all  of  these 
lines  men  are  making  promises  and  prophecies 
of  usefulness  and  success.  The  cures  which 
are  suggested  for  the  malady  of  the  age  are 
many  and  diverse.  Of  some  of  them  we  need 
speak  only  in  passing,  to  recognize  that  for 
us,  at  least,  they  are  unsuitable. 


The  G-ospel  of  a  Person      *         45 

Herr  Max  Nordau,  for  example,  in  his  Reaction  to 
curious  and  chaotic  book, ,  Degeneration,  diag-  6 
noses  the  sickness  of  modern  times  as  the 
result,  not  of  a  loss  of  faith,  but  of  a  fatal 
increase  of  nervous  irritability  produced  by 
the  strain  of  an  intricate  civilization.  He 
declares  that  the  malady  must  run  its  course, 
but  that  in  time  it  will  be  healed  by  the  re- 
storative force  of  "misoneism,  that  instinctive, 
invincible  aversion  to  progress  and  its  difficul- 
ties that  Lombroso  has  studied  so  much  and  to 
which  he  has  given  this  name."1 

The  name  is  certainly  not  a  pretty  one,  nor 
do  I  think  that,  after  the  first  feeling  of  pleas- 
ure in  learning  to  pronounce  a  newly  imported 
word  has  passed,  the  contemplation  of  its 
meaning  will  afford  us  any  profound  sense  of 
satisfaction  or  hope.  The  picture  of  mankind 
as  a  magnified  Jemmy  Button,  returning  from 
his  temporary  residence  in  England  to  his  na- 
tive Terra  del  Fuego,  and  flinging  away  his 
gloves  and  patent-leather  shoes,  to  relapse  into 
a  peaceful  and  contented  barbarism,  is  not  in- 
spiring. Who  is  there  that  would  care  to  de- 
vote his  life  to  the  hastening  of  such  a  result  ? 
Who  but  the  veriest  quack,  himself  affected  by 
the  hysteria  of  the  age,  would  think  of  curing 
1  Max  Nordau,  Degeneration  (New  York,  1895),  p.  642. 


46  The  Gospel  of  a  Person 

the  convulsions  of  St.  Vitus'  dance  in  an  over- 
strained humanity  by  throwing  the  patient  into 
the  stupor  of  typhoid  fever  ? 
Psychical  Another  and  very  different  method  of  deal- 
ing  with  the  malady  of  the  times  is  suggested 
by  those  who  believe  that  Science  itself,  in  the 
immense  future  advance  which  is  predicted  for 
it,  will  supply  the  antidote  for  the  scepticism 
which  has  accompanied  its  previous  course. 
New  discoveries  will  be  made  which  will  sup- 
port the  proposition:  II  faut  avoir  une  dme. 
New  arguments  will  be  constructed  which  will 
give  us  a  scientific  demonstration  of  the  un- 
seen universe  and  the  future  life.  It  is  in 
this  spirit  that  Mr.  F.  W.  H.  Myers  calls  at- 
tention to  the  phenomena  of  mesmerism  and 
hypnotism  and  telepathy,  and  suggests  that 
the  need  of  the  age  is  a  more  cordial  and 
general  interest  in  the  investigations  of  the 
Society  of  Psychical  Research.1  I  do  not 
think,  for  one,  that  these  investigations  are 
to  be  slighted  or  despised.  They  may  be  of 
great  value.  But  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that 
this  is  the  source  to  which  the  preacher  is  to 
look  either  for  his  inspiration  or  his  message. 
For,  in  the  first  place,  it  is  highly  improbable 
that  science  is  about  to  make  any  such  aston- 
1  Science  and  A  Future  Life  (Macmillan,  1893),  pp.  34,  44. 


The  Gospel  of  a  Person  47 

ishing  advance,  either  in  methods  or  results, 
as  some  men  anticipate.  The  best  authorities 
admit  this,  and  warn  us  that  there  are  "limi- 
tations in  the  nature  of  the  universe  which 
must  circumscribe  the  achievements  of  specu- 
lative research."1  Mr.  Myers  himself  makes 
the  same  admission,  and  says  that  so  far  as 
our  discoveries  are  confined  to  the  physical 
side  of  things,  there  is  no  ground  whatever 
for  sanguine  hope.  Moreover,  in  the  second 
place,  whatever  work  may  be  done  in  this  di- 
rection must  be  accomplished,  not  by  preachers, 
but  by  scientists.  The  average  preacher  has 
no  particular  vocation,  and  no  adequate  qual- 
ification, for  the  task.  Neither  by  tempera- 
ment nor  by  training  is  he  fitted  to  judge 
of  these  matters.  Now  and  then  you  will  find 
a  rare  exception  ;  but  as  a  rule  nothing  could 
be  of  less  value  than  the  scientific  sermons  of 
preachers  who  have  only  a  bowing  acquaint- 
ance with  science.  If  the  cure  of  modern 
scepticism  is  to  be  accomplished  by  the  further 
progress  of  physical  investigation,  at  least  we 
must  confess  that  this  enterprise  is  not  for  us. 

But  there  are  two  other  ways  of  deal- 
ing with  current  doubt  which  demand  closer 
attention.  One  of  them  is  the  philosophic 

1 C.  H.  Pearson,  National  Life  and  Character  (Macmillan, 
1893),  p.  291. 


48  The  G-ospel  of  a  Person 

Thorough-  method  of  a  reductio  ad  dbsurdum.  The  logic 
rationalism.  °^  rationalism  is  applied  to  its  own  premisses 
in  order  to  show  that  they  are  unfounded  and 
un verifiable.  The  result  of  this  attack,  as  it 
has  been  made  with  a  relentless  and  masterly 
hand  by  Mr.  Arthur  James  Balfour  in  his 
Defence  of  Philosophic  Doubt,  is  to  exhibit  the 
startling  fact  that  "the  universe  as  repre- 
sented to  us  by  science  is  wholly  unimaginable, 
and  that  our  conception  of  it  is  what  in  The- 
ology would  be  termed  purely  anthropomor- 
phic."1 The  evidence  for  the  existence  of  a 
world  composed  of  atoms  and  ether  is  no 
more  conclusive,  the  account  which  science 
gives  of  their  nature  and  qualities  is  no  more 
coherent,  than  the  evidence  and  account  which 
faith  gives  of  a  world  created  by  a  personal 
God  and  inhabited  by  immortal  souls.  Pure 
agnosticism  is  thus  forced  into  the  service  of 
Christianity  and  used  to  destroy  all  a  priori 
objections  to  it.  Giant  Doubt  is  brought  low 
by  turning  his  own  weapons  against  himself, 
even  as  Benaiah,  the  son  of  Jehoiada,  slew  the 
Egyptian  "with  his  own  spear."2 

The  value  of  this  service   of   philosophy   is 

1 A  Defence  of  Philosophic  Doubt  (Macmillan,  1879), 
pp.  284,  285,  287-289. 
2  1  Chron.  xi.  23. 


The  Gospel  of  a  Person  49 

considerable.  The  Christian  preacher  ought 
not  to  be  ignorant  of  its  actual  results,  for 
they  are  such  as  to  encourage  him  in  preserv- 
ing his  independence  against  the  tyrannous 
claims  of  positivism  ;  nor  unfamiliar  with  its 
methods,  for  they  are  fitted  to  train  and  disci- 
pline his  mind  by  hard  exercise  and  exact  work. 
But  it  must  be  remembered  that  only  a  mighty 
man  of  valour,  one  who,  like  Benaiah,  ranks 
above  the  host,  and  above  the  thirty  captains  of 
the  host,  can  hope  to  play  a  leading  part  in  this 
enterprise  of  "carrying  the  war  into  Africa." 
It  must  be  remembered  also  that  the  reduction 
of  scientific  naturalism  to  an  absurdity  falls  far 
short  of  the  establishment  of  religious  faith  as 
a  verity.  Grateful  for  all  that  philosophy  can 
do,  and  is  doing,  to  clear  the  way,  the  preacher 
must  have  a  principle,  an  impulse,  a  line  of 
action  which  will  carry  him  beyond  the  nega- 
tive result  of  making  unbelief  doubtful,  to  the 
positive  result  of  making  belief  credible. 

At  this  point  our  attention  is  called  to  an-   Theological 
other  way  of  dealing  with  current  scepticism,  t'or 
—  the  dogmatic  method,  which  relies  for  the 
defence  of    faith   upon  the   construction   of  a 
complete  and  consistent  system  of  doctrine  in 
regard  to  God  and  man,  the  present  world  and 
the  future   life.     Faith,  in  other  words,  is   to 


50  The  Gospel  of  a  Person 

be  established  by  fortification,  surrounded  and 
entrenched  with  banquette  and  parapet,  scarp 
and  ditch  and  counterscarp  of  iron-worded 
proof,  defended  on  every  side  by  solid  syllo- 
gisms, and  impregnable  against  all  assaults  of 
unbelief.  It  is  foolish  not  to  recognize  the 
great  work  which  has  been  done  along  this  line 
by  wise  and  strong  men  in  the  past.  Those 
who  affect  to  despise  it  and  make  light  of  it, 
are  simply  ignorant  of  some  of  the  loftiest 
achievements  of  the  human  intellect.  The 
works  of  Augustine  and  Anselm  and  Thomas 
Aquinas,  of  John  Calvin  and  Richard  Hooker 
and  John  Owen,  of  Ralph  Cudworth  and 
William  Chilling  worth,  of  Richard  Baxter  and 
Samuel  Clarke  and  Joseph  Butler,  of  Jonathan 
Edwards  and  Charles  Hodge  and  W.  G.  T. 
Shedd,  are  massive  works.  They  impose  a 
sense  of  wonder  upon  every  thoughtful  ob- 
server. 

Changed  But  concerning  the  attempt  to  conquer  mod- 

ern doubt  by  a  system  of  dogmatic  theology, 
certain  things  must  be  remembered.  The  con- 
ditions of  warfare  change  from  age  to  age. 
The  vast  fortresses  of  solid  stone  whose  posses- 
sion was  once  regarded  as  the  security  of 
nations,  are  not  ranked  so  high  as  they  were 
a  hundred  years  ago.  The  earthwork,  the 


The  G-ospel  of  a  Person     '  51 

rifled  cannon,  the  iron-clad  ship,  the  torpedo, 
have  wrought  great  changes.  Deductive  logic 
is  just  as  strong  as  it  ever  was,  but  somehow  or 
other  men  are  not  as  much  impressed  by  it. 
Induction  is  the  method  of  to-day:  and  that  is 
a  subtle,  evasive,  mobile  method.  It  cannot 
be  shut  in  by  a  ring  of  fortresses.  Already 
the  dogmatic  systems  in  which  the  inductive 
method  is  ignored  or  subordinated  (whether 
made  long  ago,  or  constructed  yesterday  on 
ancient  models)  are  out  of  date.  They  are 
good  for  the  men  who  are  within  them,  but 
on  the  outside  world  they  have  no  more  effect 
than  Windsor  Castle  would  have  in  protecting 
England  from  a  foreign  invasion. 

We  feel  sure  that  theology,  in  time,  must  The  future 
and  will  vindicate  its  claim  to  be  considered  as  °' 
an  essential  factor  in  the  intellectual  life  of 
man,  by  adapting  itself  to  the  changed  condi- 
tions, and  producing  even  mightier  works  by 
the  new  methods  than  those  which  it  produced 
by  the  old.  Already  we  see  the  promise  of  a 
renaissance  of  dogmatics  in  such  books  as  Mul- 
ford's  The  Republic  of  God,  Harris'  The  Self- 
Revelation  of  Gf-od,  Orr's  The  Christian  View  of 
G-od  and  the  World,  and  Fairbairn's  The  Place 
of  Christ  in  Modern  Theology.  But  we  must 
remember  that  even  those  who  anticipate  and 


52  The  Gospel  of  a  Person 

Great  things  predict  this  reconstruction  of  the  old  truth  on 

demandedof    ,,  ,.  . ,        .      ..      ,, 

the  new  the-  ^ne  new  lmes  most  enthusiastically,  recognize 
elogian.  that  it  must  be  a  long  and  difficult  task,  and 
that  the  man  who  is  to  be  a  master-builder 
must  have  a  magnificent  equipment.  How  ex- 
hilarating at  the  first  sight,  but  at  the  second 
sight  how  overwhelming  and  discouraging,  are 
the  demands  of  the  age  upon  him  who  would 
fain  be  an  epoch-making  theologian,  as  they  are 
stated,  for  example,  in  Mr.  Balfour's  Founda- 
tions of  Belief,  or  in  Dr.  George  A.  Gordon's 
inspiring  book  The  Christ  of  To-day.  Truly  it 
appears  that  such  a  man  must  realize  the  sup- 
position of  St.  Paul :  he  must  speak  with  the 
tongues  of  men  and  of  angels,  and  have  the 
gift  of  prophecy,  and  understand  all  mysteries 
and  all  knowledge.  Who  is  sufficient  for  these 
things  ?  It  will  take  a  long  time  for  the  best 
of  us  to  learn  all  this.  Perhaps  the  most  of  us 
may  never  go  so  far.  Meantime,  whether  we 
are  labouring  towards  that  goal,  or  despairing 
of  it,  we  need  something  divinely  simple  and 
divinely  true  that  we  can  preach  at  once,  di- 
rectly, joyfully,  fervently  to  the  heart  of  the  age. 
A  view  of  the  world,  a  Welt-anschauung,  is  de- 
sirable, perhaps  in  the  long  run  necessary,  for 
the  mind  of  man ;  but  there  is  another  thing 


Tlie  G-ospel  of  a  Person     *          53 

which  is  more  desirable  and  of  prior  necessity,  ^  starting. 
and  that  is  a  standpoint  of  practical  conviction  Pf^iTthe 
from  which  to  obtain  such  a  view.     It  may  be  ft™*  *«««- 
but  a  foothold,  only  a  single  point  of  contact,  "'*' 
but  we  must  have  it,  and  it  must  be  solid  as  a 
fact.     A  complete  and  consistent  theology  is  a 
consummation  most  devoutly  to  be  wished  for ; 
but  before  it  can  come  there  must  be  some- 
thing else,  —  a  living,  active  power  of  faith  in 
the  soul.     This  power,  as  we  believe,  already 
exists  in  every  human  being.      But   there  is 
only  one  thing  that  can  awaken  it  and  call  it 
into  action,  and   that   is  a  gospel,  a   message 
clear  as  light,  which  in  its  very  essence  is  a 
force  to  quicken  and  stir  the  soul. 

We  look  out  upon  the  world  and  we  see  that  Preaching 
some  men  have  had  such  a  gospel  without  be-  * 
ing  in  any  sense  finished  and  systematic  theo- 
logians. St.  Paul  and  St.  Peter  and  St.  John 
had  it.  St.  Chrysostom  and  St.  Francis  of 
Assisi  and  Savonarola  had  it.  John  Wesley 
and  George  Whitfield  had  it.  In  different  ages 
and  under  different  conditions  these  preachers 
had  the  primal  message  which  moves  men  to 
believe.  And  in  our  own  age,  under  our  own 
conditions,  a  like  message  has  been  proclaimed 
with  power.  Pere  Lacordaire  preached  such  a 
message  in  Notre  Dame,  and  Canon  Liddon  in 


54  The  Gf-ospel  of  a  Person 

St.  Paul's,  to  listening  thousands.  Bishop 
Brooks  made  it  thrill  like  a  celestial  music 
through  the  young  manhood  of  America;  and 
Dwight  L.  Moody  has  spoken  it  with  vigorous 
directness  in  every  great  city  that  knows  the 
English  tongue.  In  many  things,  in  ecclesias- 
tical relation,  in  theological  statement,  in  dress, 
in  manner,  in  language,  these  preachers  are 
unlike.  One  thing  only  is  the  same  in  all  of 
them,  and  that  is  the  source  of  their  power. 
Their  central  message,  the  core  of  their  preach- 
ing,  is  the  piercing,  moving,  personal  gospel 
of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the  Son  of  God  and  Sav 
iour  of  mankind.  This,  in  its  simplest  form  ; 
this,  in  its  clearest  expression ;  this  presenta- 
tion of  a  person  to  persons  in  order  that  they 
may  first  know,  and  then  love  and  trust  and 
follow  Him — this  is  pre-eminently  the  gospel 
for  an  age  of  doubt. 


The  Gospel  The  adaptation  of  our  central  message,  thus 
conceived  and  thus  expressed,  to  meet  the 
peculiar  needs  of  a  time  of  general  scepticism, 
is  the  theme  of  this  lecture.  I  do  not  say  that 
this  is  the  whole  of  Christianity.  I  do  not  say 
that  when  the  preacher  has  delivered  this  mes- 
sage in  this  form  he  has  fulfilled  all  of  his 


The  Gospel  of  a  Person     ••*          55 

duties.  He  may  have  to  bear  testimony  against 
errors  of  thought  and  vices  of  conduct ;  he  is 
certainly  bound  to  give  encouragement  and 
guidance  to  new  efforts  of  virtue  and  new  en- 
terprises of  benevolence  in  every  field.  But 
his  first  and  greatest  duty,  the  discharge  of 
which  is  to  give  him  influence  over  doubting 
hearts  and  strength  for  all  his  other  work,  is 
simply  to  preach  Christ. 

This  gospel  meets  the  needs  of  the  present  The  gospel 
time  because  it  is  the  gospel  of  a  fact.  of  a  fact. 

Personality  is  a  fact.  Indeed  we  may  say 
that  it  is  the  aboriginal  fact ;  the  source  of  all 
perception  ;  the  starting-point  of  all  thought ; 
the  informing  and  moulding  principle  of  all 
language.  "  All  human  observation  implies 
that  the  mind,  the  'I,'  is  a  thing  in  itself,  a 
fixed  point  in  a  world  of  change,  of  which  world 
of  change  its  own  organs  form  a  part.  It  is  the 
same,  yesterday,  to-day,  and  to-morrow.  It 
was  what  it  is,  when  its  organs  were  of  a  dif- 
ferent shape  and  consisted  of  different  matter 
from  their  present  shape  and  matter.  It  will 
be  what  it  is,  when  they  have  gone  through 
other  changes."1 

1  Sir  James  Fitzjames  Stephen,  Liberty,  Equality,  Frater- 
nity. Quoted  by  Button,  Contemporary  Thought,  L,  p.  114. 


56  The  G-ospel  of  a  Person 

Personality        This  fact  of  a  rational,  free,  conscious,  persist- 
Nation.          en^  se^  is  the  foundation  of  all  sensation  and 


of  all  reflection  ;  it  is  the  basis  of  physics  as  well 
as  of  metaphysics.  By  contrast  it  gives  us  our 
first  notion  of  matter  ;  by  resistance,  our  first 
notion  of  force  ;  by  operation,  our  first  notion 
of  causality.  It  is  a  necessary  assumption  even 
in  the  philosophies  of  agnosticism,  positivism, 
and  materialism.  They  cannot  move  a  step 
without  it. 

"  They  reckon  ill  who  leave  me  out." 

To  deny  personality  is  to  deny  the  possibility 
of  any  kind  of  knowledge  and  reduce  the  uni- 
verse to  a  blank.1 

Moreover,  it  is  not  only  true  that  the  recogni- 
tion of  our  own  personality  lies  at  the  root  of 
perception  and  reasoning.  It  is  also  true  that 
contact  with  other  personalities,  conscious,  in- 
telligent, free,  and  persistent  like  ourselves,  is 
the  gateway  through  which  we  reach  the  reality 
of  all  external  things.  To  a  solitary  mind  the 
outward  world  may  be  only  a  dream.  But  the 
moment  two  minds  come  into  contact  and  com- 
munication, it  becomes  at  least  a  permanent 
possibility  of  sensation.  By  comparison  and 
contrast  with  the  sensations  and  experiences  of 

1  Alfred  Williams  Momerie,  Personality,  the  Beginning 
and  End  of  Metaphysics  (Blackwood,  1889),  pp.  23,  132. 


The  G-ospel  of  a  Person  57 

others,  we  verify  our  own.  If  it  were  not  for 
this  the  whole  universe  would  dissolve  around 
us  like  the  baseless  fabric  of  a  vision.  The 
subtle  analysis  of  modern  science,  transforming 
the  apparently  solid  elements  into  invisible 
atoms,  and  these  atoms  into  vortex  rings  in 
the  impalpable  and  immeasurable  ether,  throws 
us  back,  more  and  more,  upon  personality,  sub- 
jective and  objective,  as  the  only  thing  that 
remains  sure  and  immutable. 

Persons,  then,  are  the  most  real  and  substan-  Persons  are 
tial  objects  of  our  knowledge.  They  touch  us 
at  more  points,  they  affect  us  in  more  ways  and 
with  greater  intensity,  they  fit  more  closely  into 
the  faculties  and  powers  of  our  own  being,  than 
anything  else  in  the  universe.  A  person  who 
has  influenced  us  or  our  fellow-men  leaves  a 
more  profound,  positive,  permanent,  and  real 
impression  than  any  other  fact  whatsoever. 
We  live  as  persons  in  a  world  of  persons,  far 
more  truly  than  we  live  in  a  world  of  phenomena 
or  laws  or  ideas. 

Now,  in  an  age  that  is  characterized,  as  some 
German  writer  has  said,  by  "  a  hunger  for  facts," 
the  gospel  of  a  person,  if  it  is  rightly  appre- 
hended and  preached,  ought  to  have  peculiar 
power  because  it  is  a  factual  gospel.  We  can 
come  to  those  who  are  under  the  benumbing 


58  The  Gospel  of  a  Person 

spell  of  universal  doubt  and  say  :  Here  is  a 
fact,  a  personality,  real  and  imperishable.  It  is 
not  merely  a  doctrine  that  was  believed  in  Pales- 
tine eighteen  hundred  years  ago.  It  is  some 
one  who  was  born  and  lived  among  men.  It  is 
not  merely  a  theory  of  God  and  the  soul  and 
the  future  life  that  sprang  up  in  the  East  in  the 
first  century  and  has  strangely  spread  itself 
over  the  world.  This  religion  is  historical  in 
every  sense  of  the  word,  as  the  actual  fulfilment 
of  an  ancient  hope,  and  the  starting-point  of  a 
new  life. 

The  reality  The  person  of  Jesus  Christ  stands  solid  in  the 
history  of  man.  He  is  indeed  more  substantial, 
more  abiding,  in  human  apprehension,  than  any 
form  of  matter,  or  any  mode  of  force.  The 
conceptions  of  earth  and  air  and  fire  and  water 
change  and  melt  around  Him,  as  the  clouds 
melt  and  change  around  an  everlasting  moun- 
tain peak.  All  attempts  to  resolve  Him  into 
a  myth,  a  legend,  an  idea,  —  and  hundreds  of 
such  attempts  have  been  made,  —  have  drifted 
over  the  enduring  reality  of  His  character  and 
left  not  a  rack  behind.  The  result  of  all  criti- 
cism, the  final  verdict  of  enlightened  common- 
sense,  is  that  Christ  is  historical.  He  is  such  a 
person  as  men  could  not  have  imagined  if  they 


The  Gospel  of  a  Person     ••*          59 

would,  and  would  not  have  imagined  if  they 
could.  He  is  neither  Greek  myth,  nor  Hebrew 
legend.  The  artist  capable  of  fashioning  Him 
did  not  exist,  nor  could  he  have  found  the 
materials.  A  non-existent  Christianity  did  not 
spring  out  of  the  air  and  create  a  Christ.  A 
real  Christ  appeared  in  the  world  and  created 
Christianity.  This  is  what  we  mean  by  the 
gospel  of  a  fact. 

II 

And  here  we  come  at  once  into  sight  of  the   The  gospel 
second  quality  of  this  gospel  which  is  pecul- 
iarly fitted  to  meet  the  needs  of  a  doubting  age. 

If  it  be  true  that  a  person  is  a  fact,  it  is  no 
less  true  that  a  person  is  a  force.  The  world 
moves  by  personality.  All  the  great  currents 
of  history  have  flowed  from  persons.  Organi- 
zation is  powerful;  but  no  organization  has 
ever  accomplished  anything  until  a  person  has 
stood  at  the  centre  of  it  and  filled  it  with  his 
thought,  with  his  life.  Truth  is  mighty  and 
must  prevail.  But  it  never  does  prevail  actu- 
ally until  it  gets  itself  embodied,  incarnated,  in 
a  personality.  Christianity  has  an  organiza- 
tion. Christianity  has  a  doctrine.  But  the 
force  of  Christianity,  that  which  made  it  move 


60  The  G-ospel  of  a  Person 

and  lent  it  power  to  move  the  world,  is  the  Per- 
son at  the  heart  of  it,  who  gives  vitality  to  the 
organization  and  reality  to  the  doctrine.  All 
the  abstract  truths  of  Christianity  might  have 
come  into  the  world  in  another  form,  —  nay, 
the  substance  of  these  truths  did  actually  come 
into  the  world,  dimly  and  partially  through  the 
fragmentary  religions  of  the  nations,  more 
clearly  and  with  increasing,  prophetic  light 
through  the  inspired  Scriptures  of  the  He- 
brews ;  but  still  the  world  would  not  stir,  still 
the  truth  could  not  make  itself  felt  as  a  univer- 
sal force  in  the  life  of  humanity  until 

"  The  Word  had  breath,  and  wrought 

With  human  hands  the  creed  of  creeds, 
In  loveliness  of  perfect  deeds, 
More  strong  than  all  poetic  thought." 1 

I  think  we  must  get  back,  in  our  conception  of 
Christianity  and  in  our  preaching  of  it,  to  this 
primary  position.  The  fount  and  origin  of  its 
power  was,  and  continued  to  be,  and  still  is,  the 
Person  Christ. 
Christ  was  This  was  the  secret  of  His  ministry.  He 

His  own          ,,.         ,,  -IIP     TT- 

gospel.          Himself   was    the    central   word   of    His   own 
preaching.     He  offered  Himself  to  the  world 
as  the  solution  of  its  difficulties  and  the  source 
1  Tennyson,  In  Memoriam,  xxxvi. 


The  Crospel  of  a  Person  61 

of  a  new  life.  He  asked  men  simply  to  be- 
lieve in  Him,  to  love  Him,  to  follow  Him.  He 
called  the  self-righteous  to  humble  themselves 
to  His  correction,  the  sinful  to  confide  in  His 
forgiveness,  the  doubting  to  trust  His  assur- 
ance, and  the  believing  to  accept  His  guid- 
ance into  fuller  light.1  To  those  who  became 
His  disciples  He  gave  doctrine  and  instruction 
in  many  things.  But  to  those  who  were  not 
yet  His  disciples,  to  the  world,  He  offered  first 
of  all  Himself,  not  a  doctrine,  not  a  plan  of 
life,  but  a  living  Person.  This  was  the  sub- 
stance of  His  first  sermon  when  He  stood  up 
in  the  synagogue  at  Nazareth  and  having  read 
from  the  Book  of  Isaiah  the  prophecy  of  the 
Great  Liberator,  declared  unto  the  people 
"This  day  is  this  Scripture  fulfilled  in  your 
ears."2  This  was  the  attraction  of  His  univer- 
sal invitation,  "  Come  unto  Me,  all  ye  that 
labour  and  are  heavy  laden  and  I  will  give 
you  rest."3  This  was  the  heart  of  His  sum- 
mary of  His  completed  work  when  He  said,  "  I, 
if  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth,  will  draw  all 
men  unto  Me."4 

1  Henry  Latham,  Pastor  Pastorum  (New  York,  James 
Pott  &  Co.,  1891),  pp.  273-275. 

2  St.  Luke  iv.  16-21. 
8  St.  Matt.  xi.  28. 

*  St.  John  xii.  32. 


62  The  G-ospel  of  a  Person 

We  are  not  considering,  at  this  moment,  the 
tremendous  implications  of  such  a  personal 
self-assertion,  unparalleled,  I  believe,  in  the 
founder  of  any  other  religion.  We  pass  by 
for  the  present  that  famous  and  inevitable 
alternative,  Aut  Christus  Deus,  aut  homo  non 
bonus  est.  The  point,  now,  is  simply  this. 
As  a  matter  of  history,  setting  aside  all  ques- 
tion of  the  divine  inspiration  and  authority 
of  the  Gospels,  taking  them  merely  as  a 
trustworthy  report  of  a  certain  sequence  of 
events,1  it  is  plain  that  the  force  which  started 
the  religion  of  Jesus  was  the  person  Jesus. 
Christ  was  His  own  Christianity.  Christ  was 
the  core  of  His  own  gospel. 

The  life  of         Read  on  through  the  other  books  of  the  New 

flowed  from    Testament,  the  Acts  and  the  Epistles,  and  you 

Christ.          win  see  that  they  are  just  the  record  of  the 

operation  of  this  force  in  life  and  literature. 

It  was  this  that  sent  the  apostles  out  into  the 


1  The  evidence  for  the  historic  trustworthiness  of  the 
Gospels  may  be  found  summed  up  in  its  modern  form  in  Dr. 
Salmon's  Introduction  to  the  New  Testament,  fourth  edition 
(New  York,  Young  &  Co.,  1889);  in  Bishop  Lightfoot's  Es- 
says on  "Supernatural  Religion"  (Macmillan,  1889);  in 
Beyschlag's  New  Testament  Theology  (Edinburgh,  T.  &  T. 
Clark,  1895),  pp.  29-31,  216-221  of  volume  i. ;  and  in  Prof, 
George  P.  Fisher's  Grounds  of  Theistic  and  Christian  Be- 
lief  (Scribners,  1883). 


The  G-ospel  of  a  Person  63 

world,  reluctantly  and  hesitatingly  at  first,  then 
joyfully  and  triumphantly,  like  men  driven  by 
an  irresistible  impulse.  It  was  the  manifesta- 
tion of  Christ  that  converted  them,1  the  love 
of  Christ  that  constrained  them,2  the  power  of 
Christ  that  impelled  them.3  He  was  their 
certainty4  and  their  strength.5  He  was  their 
peace 6  and  their  hope.7  For  Christ  they  la- 
boured and  suffered  ;  8  in  Christ  they  gloried  ; 9 
for  Christ's  sake  they  lived  and  died.10  They 
felt  and  they  declared  that  the  life  that  was  in 
them  was  His  life.11  They  were  confident  that 
they  could  do  all  things  through  Christ  which 
strengthened  them.12  The  offices  of  the  Church 
—  apostle,  bishop,  deacon,  evangelist,  —  call 
them  by  what  names  you  will  —  were  simply 
forms  of  service  to  Him  as  Master ; 13  the 
doctrines  of  the  Church  were  simply  unfold- 
ings  of  what  she  had  received  from  Him  as 
Teacher ; 14  the  worship  of  the  Church,  as  dis  • 
tinguished  from  that  of  the  Jewish  Synagogue 
and  the  Heathen  Temple,  was  the  adoration 
of  Christ  as  Lord.16 

Now  it  was  precisely  this  relation  of  the 

1  Gal.  i.  16.          e  Eph.  ii.  14.  "  Gal.  ii.  20. 

2  2  Cor.  v.  14.      7  col.  i.  27.  12  Phil.  iv.  13. 

8  2  Cor.  xii.  9.     8  Phil.  iii.  8-10.       18  Eph.  iv.  8-12. 

*  2  Tim.  i.  12.       »  Gal.  vi.  14.  14  1  Cor.  xi.  1,  23 ;  xv.  3. 

*  2  Tim.  ii.  1.      M  2  Cor.  iv.  5, 11.    «  Phil.  ii.  11;  1  Cor.  xii.  3. 


64 


The  G-ospel  of  a  Person 


The  influ- 
ence of 
Christianity 
came  from 
Christ. 


The  magic 
of  Christ's 
name. 


early  Church,  in  her  organization  and  doctrine 
and  worship,  to  the  person  Christ,  held  fast 
in  her  memory  as  identical  with  the  real  Jesus 
who  was  born  in  Bethlehem  and  crucified  on 
Calvary,  conceived  in  her  faith  as  still  living 
and  present  with  His  disciples,  —  it  was  this 
personal  animation  of  the  Church  by  Christ 
that  gave  her  influence  over  men.  Contrary 
to  all  human  probability,  against  the  prejudice 
of  the  Hebrews  who  abhorred  the  name  of  a 
crucified  man,  against  the  prejudice  of  the 
Greeks  and  Romans  who  despised  the  name 
of  a  common  Jew,  she  made  her  way,  not  by 
concealing,  but  by  exalting  and  glorifying,  the 
name  of  Jesus  Christ.  Indeed,  it  seems  as  if 
her  career  of  conquest  was  actually  delayed 
until  that  name  was  taken  up  and  written  upon 
her  banners.  It  was  in  Antioch,  where  the 
disciples  were  first  called  Christians,1  that  the 
missionary  enterprise  of  the  Church  began,  and 
it  was  from  that  centre,  with  that  title,  that 
she  went  out  to  her  triumph. 

The  name  of  Christ  was  magical ;  not  as  a 
secret  and  unintelligible  incantation,  but  as 
the  sign  of  a  real  person,  known  and  loved. 
It  enlightened  and  healed  and  quickened  the 
heart  of  an  age  which,  like  our  own,  was  dark 
1  Acts  xi.  26 ;  xiii.  1-3. 


The  Gospel  of  a  Person  *  65 

and  sorrowful  and  heavy  with  doubt.  It  was 
the  charm  which  drew  men  to  Christianity  out 
of  the  abstractions  of  philosophy,1  and  the  con- 
fusions of  idolatry  darkened  with  a  thousand 
personifications  but  empty  of  all  true  person- 
ality. The  music  of  that  name  rang  through 
all  the  temple  of  the  Church,  and  to  its  har- 
monies her  walls  were  builded.  The  acknow- 
ledgment of  that  name  was  the  mark  of  Christian 
discipleship.  To  confess  that  "Jesus  is  the 
Christ "  was  the  Avay  to  enter  the  Church.  The 
symbolism  of  that  name  was  the  mark  of  Chris- 
tian worship.  The  central  rites  of  the  Church 
were  baptism  into  Christ  and  communion  with 
Christ.  Fidelity  to  His  name  was  the  crown 
of  Christian  martyrdom.  Unnumbered  multi- 
tudes of  men  and  women  and  children  went 
down  to  death  because  they  would  not  deny 
the  Christ.  Whatever  the  early  Church 
was  and  did,  beyond  a  doubt  her  character 
and  her  activity  were  but  the  resultant  of 
the  personal  influence  that  flowed  from  Jesus 
Christ.2 

When  we  turn  to  follow  the  history  of  Chris- 
tianity through  the  later  centuries  down  to  the 

1  See  Justin  Martyr,  Dialogue  with  Trypho,  chap.  viii. 

2  George  B.  Stevens,  The  Pauline  Theology  (New  York, 
Scribners,  1892),  pp.  321-323. 


66 


The  Gospel  of  a  Person 


Christ  is 
the  charm 
of  Christi- 
anity. 


Thepersonai  present  time,  we  see  that  the  same  thing  is 
^Christ  true.      The  temporal  power  of  the  Bishop  of 

continues.  Rome  doubtless  grew  out  of  the  union  of  the 
Church  with  the  Empire.  The  immense  wealth 
and  secular  authority  of  ecclesiastics  may  be 
traced  to  social  and  political  causes.  But  the 
inward,  vitalizing,  self-propagating  power  of 
Christianity  as  a  religion  has  always  come  from 
the  person  of  Jesus  who  stands  at  the  heart  of 
it.  The  attraction  of  its  hymns  and  psalms  and 
spiritual  songs,  the  beauty  of  its  holy  days  and 
solemn  ceremonies,  were  derived  from  Him 
who  is  the  central  figure  in  praise  and  prayer. 
The  renaissance  of  Christian  Art  sprang  from 
the  desire  to  picture  to  the  imagination  the 
visible,  adorable  form  and  face  of  Him  whom 
speculative  theology  had  so  often  concealed  or 
obscured.  The  penetrating  and  abiding  fra- 
grance of  Christian  literature  resides  in  those 
books,  like  The  Imitation  of  Christ,  in  which  the 
sweetness  of  His  character  is  embalmed  forever. 
The  potency  of  Christian  preaching  comes  from, 
and  is  measured  by,  the  clearness  of  the  light 
which  it  throws  upon  the  personality  of  Jesus. 
Read  the  roll  of  those  in  every  age  whom  the 
world  has  acknowledged  as  the  best  Christians, 
kings  and  warriors  and  philosophers,  martyrs 
and  heroes  and  labourers  in  every  noble  cause, 


The  Gospel  of  a  Person  67 

the  purest  and  the  highest  of  mankind,  and  you 
will  see  that  the  test  by  which  they  are  judged, 
the  mark  by  which  they  are  recognized,  is 
likeness  and  loyalty  to  the  personal  Christ. 
Then  turn  to  the  work  which  the  Church  is 
doing  to-day  in  the  lowest  and  darkest  fields 
of  human  life,  among  the  submerged  classes  of 
our  great  cities,  among  the  sunken  races  of 
heathendom,  and  you  cannot  deny  that  the 
force  of  that  work  to  enlighten  and  uplift,  still 
depends  upon  the  simplicity  and  reality  with 
which  it  reveals  the  person  of  Jesus  to  the 
hearts  of  men.  Christianity  as  a  missionary 
religion  would  be  fatally  crippled  if  you  took 
out  of  it  the  familiar  story  of  Jesus  and  His 
love. 

"Mr.  Darwin,"  says  Admiral  Sir  James  Sulli-   The  testi- 

t,  i      t      f,  i  i  .  mony  of  a 

van,  "  had  often  expressed  to  me  his  conviction  Doubter. 
that  it  was  utterly  useless  to  send  missionaries 
to  such  a  set  of  savages  as  the  Fuegians,  proba- 
bly the  very  lowest  of  the  human  race.  I  had 
always  replied  that  I  did  not  believe  any  human 
beings  existed  too  low  to  comprehend  the  sim- 
ple message  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  After 
many  years  he  wrote  to  me  that  the  recent 
account  of  the  mission  showed  that  he  had  been 
wrong  and  I  right  .  .  .  and  he  requested  me 
to  forward  to  the  Society  an  enclosed  cheque 


68 


The   Gospel  of  a  Person 


The  force 
which 
breaks  the 
inertia  of 
unbelief. 


for  ,£5,  as  a  testimony  of  his  interest  in  theii 
good  work."  1 

Observe,  we  are  not  constructing  an  argu- 
ment. We  are  only  tracing  a  force,  —  the 
force  that  flows  from  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ. 
The  more  closely,  the  more  powerfully  we  can 
feel  it  in  ourselves  and  in  others,  the  more  confi- 
dently we  can  come  to  a  doubting  age  and  say : 
Here  is  this  force,  intense,  persistent,  far- 
reaching.  It  has  moved  all  kinds  of  men, 
from  the  highest  to  the  lowest.  What  do  you 
make  of  it  ?  What  will  you  do  with  it  ?  Is 
it  not  the  only  thing  that  can  lift  and  move 
you  out  of  your  doubt  ?  For  scepticism  is 
just  the  inertia  of  the  soul  which  stands 
poised  between  contrary  and  mutually  destruc- 
tive theories.  From  that  state  of  impotence 
there  is  but  one  deliverance,  and  that  is  by 
force,  the  force  of  life  embodied  in  a  person. 


The  gospel 
of  a  real 
spiritual 
world. 


in 


But  the  force  which  proceeds  from  the  person 
of  Jesus  is  not  mere  power,  blind  and  purpose- 
less. It  moves  always  in  a  certain  direction. 
It  has  a  quality  in  it  which  produces  certain 


1  Alfred  Barry,   Some  Lights  of  Science  on  the  Faith 
(London,  Longmans,  1892),  p.  116. 


The  G-ospel  of  a  Person   .*  69 

results.  And  one  of  these  results  is  an  im- 
mediate and  overwhelming  sense  of  the  reality 
and  nearness  of  spiritual  things.  This  is  the 
third  point  of  adaptation  in  the  gospel  of  the 
personal  Christ  to  the  needs  of  a  sceptical  age. 
It  carries  with  itself  an  evidence  of  things  not 
seen,  a  substance  of  things  hoped  for. 

An  aura  of  wonder  and  mystery  surrounded 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  in  His  earthly  life.  All  who  *' 
came  in  contact  with  Him  felt  it ;  in  love,  if 
they  desired  to  believe  ;  in  repulsion,  if  they 
hated  to  believe.  In  His  presence,  faith  in  the 
invisible,  in  the  soul,  in  the  future  life,  in 
God,  revived  and  unfolded  with  new  bloom 
and  colour.  In  His  presence  hypocrisy  was 
silenced  and  afraid,  but  sincere  piety  found  a 
voice  and  prayed.  This  effluence  of  His  char- 
acter breathes  from  the  whole  record  of  His 
life.  It  was  not  merely  what  He  said  to  men 
about  the  eternal  verities  that  convinced  them. 
It  was  something  in  Himself,  an  atmosphere 
surrounding  Him,  and  a  silent  radiance  shining 
from  Him,  that  made  it  easier  for  them  to 
believe  in  their  own  spiritual  nature  and  in 
the  Divine  existence  and  presence.  He  drew 
out  of  their  fallen  and  neglected  hearts,  by 
some  celestial  attraction,  spontaneous,  gentle, 
irresistible,  a  new  efflorescence  of  faith  and 


70  The  G-ospel  of  a  Person 

hope  and  love.  Where  He  came  a  spiritual 
springtide  flowed  over  the  landscape  of  the 
inner  life.  Blossoms  appeared  in  the  earth 
and  the  time  for  the  singing  of  birds  was  come. 
The  effect  of  Faith  was  not  imposed  on  doubting  hearts 

Hispres-  i          ••  «       •     i 

ence.  by   an   external   and   mechanical   process.      It 

grew  in  the  warmth  that  streamed  from  Him. 
It  was  not  merely  that  men  were  at  their  best 
in  His  company,  except,  indeed,  those  who 
were  at  their  worst  through  sullen  resistance 
and  malignant  alarm  at  His  power.  It  was 
that  men  were  conscious  of  something  far  bet- 
ter than  their  best,  a  transcendent  force,  an 
influence  from  the  immeasurable  heights  above 
them.  And  to  withstand  it  they  must  sink 
below  themselves,  make  new  falsehoods  and 
new  negations  to  bind  them  down,  grapple 
themselves  more  closely  to  the  base,  the 
earthly,  the  sensual.  But  if  they  yielded  to 
that  influence,  it  lifted  and  moved  their 
thoughts  inevitably  upward.  It  was  not 
merely  what  He  told  them  of  His  own  sight 
of  spiritual  things.  It  was  what  they  saw 
reflected  in  His  face  and  form  of  that  loftier, 
wider  outlook.  He  was  like  one  standing  on  a 
high  peak,  reporting  of  the  sunrise  to  men  in 
the  dark  valley.  They  heard  His  words.  But 
they  saw  also  upon  His  countenance  the  glow 


The  Gospel  of  a  Person  *  71 

of  dawn,  and  dazzling  all  about  Him  the 
incommunicable  splendours  of  a  new  day. 

This  was  the  effect  of  the  personality  of 
Jesus,  as  He  stood  amid  the  shadows  and  un- 
certainties of  human  life  ;  an  effect  strangely 
overlooked  and  ignored,  often  even  beclouded 
and  hidden,  in  much  that  has  been  written 
about  Him  by  theologians  and  historians.  I 
do  not  dream  that  I  can  put  it  into  words. 
But  I  know  that  it  can  be  felt  as  a  reality  in 
the  Gospels.  And  I  turn  back  to  one  who  saw 
Him  face  to  face,  one  who  touched  His  hand 
and  leaned  upon  His  bosom,  for  the  expression 
of  the  soul-uplifting,  faith-begetting  wonder  of 
the  person  of  Christ  :  The  Word  was  made  flesh 
and  dwelt  among  us,  and  we  beheld  His  glory, 
the  glory  as  of  the  only-begotten  of  the  Father, 
full  of  grace  and  truth.1 

Nor  has  this  effect  vanished  from  the  world  The  ™jiw- 


with  the  removal  of  the  bodily  presence  of 
Jesus.  It  has  perpetuated  itself  by  its  own 
vital  power,  increasing  rather  than  diminish- 
ing. It  still  flows  from  the  picture  of  His  life 
which  is  preserved  in  the  Gospels,  from  the 
image  of  His  character  as  it  is  formed  in  the 
minds  of  men.  Eliminate,  if  you  please,  what 
is  called  the  miraculous  element.  Make  what 
i  St.  John  i.  14. 


72  The   Gospel  of  a  Person 

allowance  you  will  for  the  enthusiasm  and 
unguarded  utterance  of  His  disciples.  There 
still  remains  that  enthusiasm  itself  to  be  reck- 
oned with,  an  enthusiasm  which  was  kindled 
by  Him  alone.  There  still  remains  the  figure 
of  the  person  of  Christ,  who  never  can  be 
expressed  in  terms  of  matter  and  force,  who 
never  can  be  explained  by  natural  and  histori- 
cal causes,  who  carries  us  by  His  own  inherent 
mystery  into  the  presence  of  the  spiritual,  the 
divine,  the  supernatural. 
Christ  Something  of  this  spiritual  light,  I  will  ad- 

unique.  .         .  , 

mit,  —  nay,  I  will  maintain  with  joyous  and 
firm  conviction,  —  comes  from  every  human 
personality,  even  the  lowliest,  in  so  far  as  it 
refuses  to  be  summed  up  in  terms  of  sense 
perception,  in  so  far  as  it  gives  evidence,  by 
its  affections  and  hopes  and  fears,  of  ele- 
ments in  man  that  are  not  of  the  dust.  But 
in  Christ  this  light  is  transcendent  and  unique, 
because  He  manifestly  surpasses  the  ordinary 
attainments  of  humanity,  because  He  cannot 
be  accounted  for  by  the  laws  of  heredity 
and  environment.  The  more  closely  we  apply 
these  laws,  the  more  clearly  He  shines  out 
above  them.1 

"The   learned   men   of   our   day,"   says   M. 
1  J.  S.  Mill,  Essays  on  Bellgion,  p.  253. 


The  G-ospel  of  a  Person-  73 

Pierre  Loti  in  his  latest  book,  La  G-aliUe, 
"have  endeavoured  to  find  a  human  explica- 
tion of  His  mission,  but  they  have  not  yet 
reached  it.  ...  Around  Him,  none  the  less, 
there  still  glows  a  radiance  of  beams  which 
cannot  be  comprehended."1 

Historically  He  appears  alone,  as  no  great  Christ 
man  has  ever  appeared  before  or  since. 
Heroes,  teachers,  and  leaders  of  men  have 
always  been  seen  as  central  stars  in  larger 
constellations,  surrounded  by  lesser  but  kin- 
dred lights.  Plato  shines  in  conjunction  with 
Socrates  and  Aristotle;  Csesar  with  Pompey  and 
Crassus ;  Luther  with  Melanchthon  and  Cal- 
vin ;  Shakespeare  with  Beaumont  and  Fletcher 
and  Ben  Jonson ;  Napoleon  surrounded  with 
his  brilliant  staff  of  marshals  and  diplomats  ; 
Wordsworth  among  the  mild  glories  of  the 
Lake  poets.  In  every  case,  if  you  search  the 
neighbourhood  of  a  great  name,  you  will  find 
not  a  blank  sky,  but  an  encircling  galaxy. 
But  Jesus  Christ  stands  in  an  immense  sol- 
itude. Among  the  prophets  who  predicted 
Him,  among  the  apostles  who  testified  of 
Him,  there  is  none  worthy  to  be  compared  or 
conjoined  with  Him.  It  is  as  if  the  heavens 
were  swept  bare  of  stars ;  and  suddenly,  un- 
i  Pierre  Loti,  La  Galilee  (Paris,  1895),  p.  93. 


74  The   Gospel  of  a  Person 

expected,  unaccompanied,  the   light   of  lights 
appears  alone,  in  supreme  isolation. 

Christ  sin-  Nor  is  there  anything  in  His  antecedents, 
in  His  surroundings,  to  explain  His  appear- 
ance and  radiance.  There  was  nothing  in  the 
soil  of  the  sordid  and  narrow  Jewish  race 
to  produce  such  an  embodiment  of  pure  and 
universal  love.1  There  was  nothing  in  the 
atmosphere  of  that  corrupt  and  sensual  age 
to  beget  or  foster  such  a  character  of  stainless 
and  complete  virtue.  Nor  was  His  own  life, 
—  I  say  it  reverently,  —  judged  by  purely  hu- 
man and  natural  laws,  calculated  to  result  in 
such  an  evident  perfection  as  all  men  have 
wonderingly  recognized  in  Him.  The  high- 
est type  of  human  piety,  the  excellence  of  a 
beautiful  soul,  has  never  been  reached  among 
men  without  repentance  and  self-abasement. 
But  Jesus  never  repented,  never  abased  Him- 
self in  shame  and  sorrow  before  God,  never 
asked  for  pardon  and  mercy.  Alone,  among 
His  followers  who  kneel  at  His  command  to 
confess  their  unworthiness  and  implore  for- 
giveness, He  stands  upright  and  lifts  a  cloud- 
less face  to  heaven  in  the  inexplicable  glory 

1  Amory  H.  Bradford,  Heredity  and  Christian  Problem$ 
(New  York,  Macmillan,   1895),  p.   266. 


The  G-ospel  of  a  Person    ••+  75 

of  piety  without  penitence.  Moral  perfection 
of  this  kind  is  not  only  without  a  parallel ; 
it  is  also  without  an  approach.  Men  have 
never  attained  to  it,  and  there  is  no  way  for 
them  to  climb  thither.  We  can  only  look  up 
to  that  perfection,  serene,  sinless,  unsurpassable, 
and  feel  that  here  we  are  in  sight  of  something 
which  cannot  be  expressed  except  by  saying 
that  it  is  the  glory  of  eternal  spirit  embodied 
in  a  person. 

rv 

But  the  force  which  resides  in  the  person  The  gospel 
of  Jesus  is  not  exhausted  in  the  production  °' 
of  this  profound  impression  of  its  own  spirit- 
ual and  transcendent  nature.  It  goes  beyond 
this  result  of  a  vivid  sense  of  the  reality 
of  the  unseen.  It  has  in  itself  a  purifying, 
cleansing  power,  a  delivering,  uplifting,  sanc- 
tifying power.  The  Gospel  of  Christ  is  the 
gospel  of  a  person  who  saves  men  from  sin. 
And  herein  it  comes  very  close  to  the  heart 
of  a  doubting  age. 

The  great  and  wonderful  fact  of  this  expe- 
rience, which  can  neither  be  questioned  nor 
fully  explained,  is  not  involved  in  the  theo- 
logical speculations  which  have  gathered  about 


cross. 


76  The  G-ospel  of  a  Person 

it.  The  person  of  Jesus  stands  out  clear 
and  simple  as  a  powerful  Saviour  of  sinful 
men  and  women.  In  His  presence,  the  publi- 
can and  the  harlot  felt  their  hearts  dissolve 
with  I  know  not  what  unutterable  rapture 
of  forgiveness.  At  His  word,  the  heavy- 
laden  were  mysteriously  loosed  from  the 
imponderable  burden  of  past  transgression. 
He  suffered  with  sinners,  and  even  while 
He  suffered  He  delivered  them  from  the 
sharpest  of  all  pains, — the  pain  of  conscious 
The  power  an(j  unpardoned  evil.  He  died  for  sinners, 

of  Christ's  .  * 

according  to  His  own  word ;  and  ever  since, 
His  cross  has  been  the  sign  of  rescue  for 
humanity.  Whatever  may  be  the  nature 
of  that  sublime  transaction  upon  Calvary ; 
whatever  the  name  by  which  men  call  it, — 
Atonement,  Sacrifice,  Redemption,  Propitia- 
tion ;  whatever  relations  it  may  have  to  the 
eternal  moral  law  and  to  the  Divine  right- 
eousness,—  its  relation  to  the  human  heart  is 
luminous  and  beautiful.  It  does  take  away 
sin.  Kneeling  at  that  holy  altar,  the  soul  at 
once  remembers  most  vividly,  and  confesses 
most  humbly,  and  loses  most  entirely,  all  her 
guilt.  A  sense  of  profound,  unutterable  relief, 
a  sacred  quietude,  diffuses  itself  through  all 
the  recesses  of  the  troubled  spirit.  Looking 


The   Gospel  of  a  Person  -••  77 

unto  Christ  crucified,  we  receive  an  assurance 
of  sin  forgiven,  which  goes  deeper  than  thought 
can  fathom,  and  far  deeper  than  words  can 
measure. 

"  We  may  not  know,  we  cannot  tell 

What  pains  He  had  to  bear, 
But  we  believe  it  was  for  us 
He  hung  and  suffered  there. 

"  He  died  that  we  might  be  forgiven, 

He  died  to  make  us  good  ; 
That  we  might  go  at  last  to  heaven, 
Saved  by  His  precious  blood." 

This  is  not  theory,  this  is  not  philosophy, 
this  is  not  theology.  It  is  veritable  fact.  The 
person  Jesus,  living  with  men,  dying  for  men, 
has  actually  brought  this  gift  of  pardon  for 
the  past  and  hope  for  the  future,  into  the  heart 
of  mankind.  And  from  pure  love  of  Him  —  a 
love  which  is  first  of  all  and  most  of  all  a  sense 
of  gratitude  for  this  immeasurable  service  — 
have  blossomed,  often  out  of  the  very  abysses  of 
sin  and  degradation,  the  saintliest  and  sublimest 
lives  that  the  world  has  ever  seen. 

Now  this,  as  I  know  from  my  own  experience, 
is  the  gospel  for  doubting  men,  and  for  an  age 
of  doubt ;  the  gospel  of  a  Person  who  is  a  fact 


78 


The  Ciospel  of  a  Person 


To  know 
Christ, 
the  one 


and  a  force,  an  evidence  of  the  unseen,  and  a 
Saviour  from  sin.  Can  we  preach  it  ?  Will  we 
preach  it?  Then  one  thing  is  necessary  for 
us,  a  thing  which  might  not  be  necessary, 
perhaps,  if  our  message  were  of  another  kind. 

All  knowledge,  of  the  world,  of  human  na- 
ture, of  books,  will  be  helpful  and  tributary  ; 
all  gifts,  of  clear  thought,  of  powerful  speech, 
of  prudent  action,  will  be  valuable  and  should 
be  cultivated ;  but  one  thing  will  be  abso- 
lutely and  forever  indispensable. 

If  we  are  to  preach  Christ  we  must  know 
Christ,  and  know  Him  in  such  a  sense  that  we 
thing  need-  can  say  with  St.  Paul  that  we  are  determined 
not  to  know  anything  save  Jesus  Christ  and 
Him  crucified.1  We  must  study  Him  in  the 
record  of  His  life  until  His  character  is  more 
real  and  vivid  to  us  than  that  of  brother  or 
friend.  We  must  imagine  Him  with  ardent 
soul,  until  His  figure  glows  before  our  inward 
sight,  and  His  words  sound  in  our  ears  as  a 
living  voice.  We  must  love  with  His  love,  and 
sorrow  with  His  grief,  and  rejoice  with  His  joy, 
and  offer  ourselves  with  His  sacrifice,  so  truly, 
so  intensely  that  we  can  say,  as  St.  Paul  said, 
that  we  are  crucified  by  His  cross  and  risen  in 
His  resurrection.2  We  must  trace  the  power 
1 1  Cor.  ii.  2.  ,  *  Gal.  ii.  20. 


The  Gospel  of  a  Person  79 

of  His  life  in  the  lives  of  our  fellow-men,  fol- 
lowing and  realizing  His  triumphs  in  souls 
redeemed  and  sins  forgiven,  until  we  know 
the  rapture  that  thrilled  the  breast  of  a  St. 
Bernard,  a  St.  Francis,  a  Thomas  a  Kempis,  a 
Samuel  Rutherford,  a  Robert  McCheyne  ;  the 
chivalrous  loyalty  that  animated  a  Henry  Have- 
lock,  a  Charles  Kingsley,  a  Frederick  Robert- 
son, a  Charles  Gordon  ;  the  deep  devotion  that 
strengthened  a  David  Brainerd,  a  Henry  Mar- 
tyn,  a  Coleridge  Patteson.  We  must  become 
the  brothers  of  these  men  through  brotherhood 
with  Christ.  We  must  kindle  our  hearts  in 
communion  with  Him,  by  meditation,  by  prayer, 
and  by  service,  which  is  the  best  kind  of 
prayer.  No  day  must  pass  in  which  we  do  not 
do  something  distinctly  in  Jesus'  name,  for 
Jesus'  sake.  We  must  go  where  He  would  go 
if  He  were  on  earth.  We  must  try  to  do  what 
He  would  do  if  He  were  still  among  men. 
And  so,  by  our  failure  as  well  as  by  our  effort, 
by  the  very  contrast  between  our  incomplete- 
ness and  His  perfection,  the  image  of  our  Com- 
panion and  our  saving  Lord  will  grow  radiant 
and  distinct  within  us.  We  shall  know  that 
potent  attraction  which  His  person  has  exer- 
cised upon  the  hearts  of  men,  and  feel  in 
our  breast  that  overmastering  sense  of  loyalty 


80  The  G-ospel  of  a  Person 

to  Him,  which  alone   can  draw  us  to  follow 
Him  through  life  and  death. 

"  If  Jesus  Christ  is  a  man, — 
And  only  a  man,  —  I  say 
That  of  all  mankind  I  cleave  to  Him, 
And  to  Him  will  I  cleave  alway. 

"If  Jesus  Christ  is  a  God, — 

And  the  only  God,  —  I  swear 
I  will  follow  Him  through  heaven  and  hell, 
The  earth,  the  sea,  and  the  air."1 

1  Richard  Watson  Gilder,  "  Song  of  a  Heathen,  sojourning 
in  Galilee,  A.D.  32." 


Ill 

THE  UNVEILING   OF  THE   FATHER 


**  He,  who  from  the  Father  forth  was  sent, 
Came  the  true  Light,  light  to  our  hearts  to  bring ; 
The  Word  of  God,  — the  telling  of  His  thought; 
The  Light  of  God,  —  the  making  visible ; 
The  far-transcending  glory  brought 
In  human  form  with  man  to  dwell ; 
The  dazzling  gone  —  the  power  not  less 
To  show,  irradiate,  and  bless ; 
The  gathering  of  the  primal  rays  divine, 
Informing  Chaos  to  a  pure  sunshine ! " 

— GEORGE;  MACDONALD. 


Ill 

THE  UNVEILING  OF  THE  FATHEB 

IN  the  famous  fifteenth  chapter  of  The  De-  A  sceptic's 
dine  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  the  author,  ^Tspreado 
who  was  but  a  superficial  sceptic  though  a  Ckristian- 
profound  historian,  introduces  an  account  of  * y' 
the  rise  and  spread  of  the  Christian  Religion. 
He  attributes  its  remarkable  triumph  over  the 
established  religions  of  the  earth  to  a  series  of 
causes  which  he  ironically  describes  as  sec- 
ondary, and  uniformly  treats  as  primary.  He 
exhibits  them  as  in  themselves  sufficient  to 
explain  the  peculiarly  favourable  reception  of 
the  Christian  faith  in  the  world,  and  sets  aside 
the  question  of  a  possible  divine  origin  as 
unnecessary.  With  serene  self-satisfaction  he 
traces  the  rapid  growth  of  the  Christian  Church 
to  the  five  following  causes :  I.  The  Zeal  of 
the  Christians,  derived  from  the  Jews,  —  but 
purified  from  that  narrow  and  unsocial  spirit 
which,  instead  of  inviting,  had  deterred  the 
Gentiles  from  embracing  the  law  of  Moses. 
83 


84  The   Unveiling  of  the  Father 

II.  The  Doctrine  of  a  Future  Life,  improved 
by  every  additional  circumstance  which  could 
give  weight  and  efficacy  to  that  important 
truth.  III.  The  Miraculous  Powers  ascribed 
to  the  primitive  Church.  IV.  The  Pure  and 
Austere  Morals  of  the  Christians.  V.  The 
Union  and  Discipline  of  the  Christian  Republic, 
which  gradually  formed  an  increasing  and  in- 
dependent state  in  the  heart  of  the  Roman 
empire.1 

The  shallow-       Now  this  is  a  very  fair,  we  may  even  say  a 
wfeto  brilliant,  example  of  the  kind  of  work  which 

was  done  by  the  shallow  and  complacent  scep- 
ticism of  a  century  ago.  But  the  moment  we 
subject  it  to  the  more  searching  analysis  of  the 
scepticism  of  the  present  age,  it  dissolves  into 
a  thin  and  incoherent  absurdity.  For  it  is 
evident  that,  so  far  from  giving  an  explanation 
of  the  growth  of  Christianity,  Gibbon  is  simply 
describing  some  of  the  phenomena  which  ac- 
companied that  growth.  What,  for  example, 
is  "  the  zeal  of  the  Christians  "  but  an  unillu- 
minating  name  for  a  contagious  and  irresistible 
enthusiasm  which  spread  through  the  world 
in  connection  with  faith  in  Christ  ?  What  is 

1  Edward  Gibbon,  Esq.,  A  History  of  the  Decline  and 
Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire  (London,  John  Murray,  8th 
Edition,  1854),  vol.  ii.,  p.  152, 


The   Unveiling  of  the  Father  85 

"  the  union  and  discipline  of  the  Christian  re- 
public "  but  a  description,  without  explanation, 
of  the  organic  unfolding  of  a  new,  myste- 
rious principle  of  fellowship.  These  alleged 
"  causes,"  more  closely  examined,  are  in  fact 
the  very  things  that  require  to  be  accounted 
for.  Instead  of  clearing  up  the  mystery,  they 
increase  it. 

By  a  singular  fatality  of  language,  the  seep-  Th& 
tical  historian  has  embodied  in  the  statement 
of  his  position  the  demonstration  of  its  insuf-  explained. 
ficiency.  In  each  of  his  causes,  and  in  the 
relation  that  subsists  between  them,  he  has 
practically  suggested  a  difficulty  which  de- 
mands another  and  a  higher  solution  of  the 
whole  problem.  Examine  his  words  carefully. 

By  what  means,  human  or  divine,  was  the   Questions 
zeal  of  the  Christians  '  purified  from  the  narrow  mand  an~ 
and  unsocial  spirit  of  the  Jews  '  ?     The  natural  answer. 
history  of  sects  and  schisms   teaches  us   that 
their  invariable  tendency  is  to  intensify  rather 
than   to  eliminate   bigotry  and   exclusiveness. 
Through  what  influence  was  the  doctrine  of  a 
future  life  'improved  by  every  additional  cir- 
cumstance that  could  give  it  weight  and  effi- 
cacy '  ?     The  inevitable   course  of   its   human 
development   under   the   guidance  of   abstract 
philosophy  has  been  towards  vagueness,  cold- 


86  The   Unveiling  of  the  Father 

ness,  and  uncertainty;  under  the  guidance  of 
concrete  superstition,  towards  puerility  and 
crass  sensualism.  On  what  grounds  were  mir- 
aculous powers  ascribed  to  the  early  Church  ? 
They  must  have  been  ascribed  truly  or  falsely. 
If  truly,  there  must  have  been  some  basis  of 
fact  for  them  to  rest  upon.  If  falsely,  the 
Christians  themselves  were  either  ignorant, 
or  cognizant,  of  the  falsehood.  Take  the 
former  supposition,  and  you  present  yourself 
with  the  inexplicable  theory  that  what  Pliny 
the  Younger  called  superstitio  prava  immodica, 
and  imagined  would  be  easily  and  certainly  ex- 
tirpated, was  able  to  hold  its  own  against  all 
the  assaults  of  learning  and  philosophy.  Take 
the  latter  supposition,  and  you  are  forced  to  the 
incredible  assumption  that  a  conscious  decep- 
tion was  the  fountain  of  highest  and  strongest 
moral  force  that  the  world  has  ever  felt.1 
How  then  did  the  "  pure  and  austere  morals  of 
the  Christians  "  come  into  existence  ?  From  a 
lie,  or  from  a  truth?  If  from  a  truth,  what 
was  the  nature  of  that  truth,  in  what  form  was 
it  expressed,  and  how  did  it  win  credence? 

1  Carlyle,  Heroes  and  Hero-Worship,  sect.  ii. :  "A  false 
man  found  a  religion  ?  Why,  a  false  man  cannot  even  build 
a  brick  house  !  If  he  do  not  know  and  follow  truly  the 
properties  of  mortar,  burnt  clay,  and  what  else  he  works  in, 
it  is  no  house  that  he  makes,  but  a  rubbish  heap." 


The   Unveiling  of  the  Father  87 

And,  finally,  how  did  "  the  Christian  republic  " 
succeed  in  maintaining  and  increasing  itself  as 
an  independent  state  in  the  heart  of  the  Roman 
empire  ?  Every  other  attempt  to  do  this  par- 
ticular thing,  by  secret  philosophic  doctrine,  or 
by  open  political  organization,  failed,  and  was 
violently  crushed  by  imperial  power,  or  silently 
dissolved  and  absorbed  by  imperial  statesman- 
ship. How  was  it  that  this  one  invisible  fel- 
lowship, this  one  visible  organization,  lived, 
and  spread,  and  stood  out  at  last,  serene,  com- 
plete, and  magnificent,  when  the  time-worn 
ruins  of  the  empire  crumbled  around  it  ? 

The  answer  to  these  questions  is  found  in  the  The  answer 
person  of  Christ.  This  is  not  a  matter  of  choice.  is  Christ- 
It  is  a  matter  of  necessity.  For  if  He  was,  as 
all  candid  observers  will  admit,  the  originator 
and  animator  of  Christianity,  then  to  stop  short 
of  Him  in  our  inquiry  as  to  the  causes  of  its 
existence  and  progress  is  to  stop  half-way,  as 
if  one  should  account  for  the  flow  of  the  Nile, 
after  the  fashion  of  the  ancient  geographers,  by 
attributing  it  to  the  melting  of  the  snows  on 
the  Mountains  of  the  Moon,  instead  of  tracing 
it  to  its  great  fountain  in  the  Albert  Nyanza. 

Christ  stands  above  and  behind  the  Church, 
and  all  these  secondary  causes  which  have  been 


88  The   Unveiling  of  the  Father 

Christ,  the  enumerated  to  account  for  her  growth  and 
Christian-  power  flow  directly  from  Him.  He  it  was  who 
tty*  purified  and  humanized  the  zeal  of  Christians, 

so  that  they  emerged  from  the  narrowest  of 
races  to  preach  the  broadest  and  most  universal 
of  all  religions.  He  it  was  who  cleared  and 
enlarged  their  view  of  immortality,  so  that  it 
became  at  once  important  and  efficacious,  the 
only  doctrine  of  a  future  life  that  has  exercised 
a  direct  and  uplifting  influence  upon  the  pres- 
ent life.  He  it  was  who  endowed  the  Church 
with  whatever  powers  she  possessed.  He  it  was 
who  cleansed  and  ennobled  her  moral  ideals  and 
gave  her  the  only  pattern  and  rule  of  virtue 
which  has  been  universally  acknowledged  as 
self-consistent,  satisfactory,  and  supreme.  He 
it  was  who  cemented  her  union  and  strength- 
ened her  discipline  to  such  an  indestructible  sol- 
idarity, that  the  tie  which  bound  the  individual 
soul  to  Him  was  regarded  as  superior  to  all 
earthly  relations,  and  the  fellowship  which  that 
common  tie  created,  surpassed  and  survived  all 
fellowships  of  race,  of  culture,  of  nationality. 

These  are  simple  historical  facts.  In  stating 
them  we  make  no  assumptions  and  propound 
no  theories.  It  is  not  necessary  to  take  any- 
thing for  granted  or  to  adopt  any  particular 
theological  or  philosophical  system,  in  order  to 


The   Unveiling  of  the  Father  89 

see  clearly  and  beyond  the  possibility  of  mis- 
take that  all  the  force  and  influence  of  Chris- 
tianity in  the  world  have,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
flowed  directly  from  Jesus  Christ  and  from  the 
faith  which  He  has  inspired  in  the  hearts  of  men. 

The  one  question  of  supreme  importance,  Who,  then, 
then,  if  we  would  understand  what  Christian-  ts  hris 
ity  really  means,  is,  Who  is  this  person  who 
stands  at  the  centre  of  it  and  fills  it  with  life 
and  strength?  What  did  the  first  Christians 
see  in  Him  that  made  them  believe  in  Him  so 
absolutely  and  implicitly  and  gave  them  power 
to  do  such  mighty  works?  What  has  the 
church  seen  in  Him  through  the  ages  that  has 
bound  her  to  Him  as  her  living  Lord  and  Mas- 
ter ?  And  what  are  we  to  see  in  Him  if  He  is 
to  be  in  deed  and  in  truth  the  theme  of  our 
gospel?  What  think  ye  of  Christ? 

This  question,  you  see,  is  vital  and  inevitable.    The  inevi- 
T  -  i  ™    .   . .  ,  .  ,     .  ,    table  quea- 

If  we  are  to  have  a  Christianity  which  is  real  tiOHf 

and  historical,  we  must  get  into  line  with  his- 
tory. If  we  are  to  have  behind  us  the  power 
which  comes  from  actual  achievements  of  our 
gospel  in  the  world,  we  must  understand  the 
relation  which  it  has  always  held  to  the  person 
of  Christ.  If  we  are  to  be  in  any  sense  the 
followers  of  the  first  Christians,  and  to  share  the 
joy  and  peace  and  power  of  their  religion,  we 


90 


The   Unveiling  of  the  Father 


The  historic 
answer. 


must  take  the  view  which  they  took,  of  Jesus 
of  Nazareth. 

Now,  the  object  of  this  lecture  may  be  stated 
in  a  single  sentence.  It  is  to  show  that  the 
first  Christians  saw,  and  that  the  Church  has 
always  seen,  in  Jesus  Christ  a  real  incarnation 
of  God ;  a  true  and  personal  unveiling  of  the 
Father  ;  God  in  Christ,  reconciling  the  world 
unto  Himself.  In  other  words,  not  only  must 
we  find  in  Jesus  Christ  the  centre  of  Christian- 
ity, but  we  must  also  behold  an  actual  divinity 
as  the  centre  of  life  in  Jesus  Christ. 


Christ's 
Godhood 
slowly  re- 
vealed. 


We  are  not  to  suppose  that  faith  in  Christ 
began  with  a  clear  and  definite  conception  of 
His  divinity.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  evident 
from  the  whole  gospel  record  that  the  idea  that 
Christ  was  divine  gradually  developed  and  un- 
folded in  the  minds  of  those  who  knew  and 
loved  and  trusted  Him.  The  idea  of  an  incar- 
nation was  foreign  to  the  Hebrew  mind.  There 
was  no  race  in  the  world  that  held  so  strongly 
to  the  thought  that  God  was  solitary,  unsearch- 
able, and  incommunicable.  They  believed  that 
even  His  true  name  could  not  be  pronounced 
by  human  lips,  and  that  it  was  impossible  for 


The   Unveiling  of  the  Father  91 

human  eyes  really  to  behold  His  glory.  And 
the  very  strength  of  this  ancestral  faith  of 
theirs,  standing  as  it  must  have  done  directly 
in  the  way  of  belief  in  an  incarnation,  is  an  evi- 
dence of  the  tremendous  power  and  unquestion- 
able reality  of  the  experience  which  forced  the 
disciples,  by  slow  degrees,  to  believe  firmly  and 
unhesitatingly  in  the  divinity  of  Christ. 

The  process  by  which  this  result  was  accom-  The  gradual 
plished  lies  open  to  our  thought  in  the  New 
Testament.  We  must  go  back  to  the  point  in- 
dicated in  the  second  lecture.  It  was  the  im- 
pression made  upon  the  disciples  by  Christ's 
own  manifestation  of  Himself,  His  character, 
His  actions,  and  His  words,  evidently  consistent 
and  unique,  which  led  them  at  last  to  see  in 
Him  the  object  of  divine  faith  and  worship. 
He  was  not  a  mere  man.  That  was  evident  and 
undeniable.  He  was  higher  than  men  ;  holier 
than  men  ;  He  possessed  an  excellence  and  a 
power  which  made  them  feel  in  His  presence 
that  He  was  more  than  they  were.  What  then 
was  He  ?  There  were  but  two  directions  in 
which  their  faith  could  move.  The  alternative 
was  sharply  set  before  the  disciples  on  that 
memorable  day  at  Csesarea  Philippi,  when  Christ 
asked  them  first,  "Whom  do  men  say  that  I,  the 
Son  of  man,  am  ?  "  and  then,  "  But  whom  say  ye 


92 


The   Unveiling  of  the  Father 


The  new 
ltianieiiefS' 


What  it 
meant  to  be 
the  Christ. 


that  I  am  ?  "  There  were  but  two  lines  open  to 
them.  One  was  the  line  of  popular  superstition, 
which  led  them  back  into  the  past  to  see  in 
Christ  only  the  ghost  of  John  the  Baptist,  or 
Elias,  or  one  of  the  prophets  come  to  life  again. 
The  other  was  the  new  line  of  Christian  faith 
which  led  them  forward  to  see  in  Jesus  "the 
Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God."1 

New  ?     Of  course  it  was  new  !     It  had  to  be 

new»  *n  or(^er  to  fi*  *^e  facts,  which  were  such 
as  had  never  been  seen  before.  And  just  be- 
cause it  was  so  new  it  had  to  unfold  itself  by 
degrees  to  the  fulness  of  conscious  apprehension 
of  all  that  it  involved. 

It  is  evident  that  the  disciples  did  not  know 
at  first  what  was  meant  by  the  Christhood, 
the  Messiahship,  the  fulfilment  of  all  ancient 
prophecy  and  sacred  ritual  in  Jesus.  But  they 
learned  the  lesson  as  they  kept  company  with 
Him.  They  heard  Him  speak  with  an  author- 
ity which  none  of  the  prophets  had  ever  claimed. 
Recognizing  a  divine  inspiration  in  the  Old 
Testament  Scriptures,  He  distinctly  set  Him- 
self above  them  as  the  bringer  of  a  new  and 
better  revelation.  He  accomplished,  interpreted, 
and  revised  them.  "  Ye  have  heard  how  it  hath 
been  said  by  them  of  old  time  "  —  by  whom  ? 
i  St.  Matt.  xvi.  13-16. 


The   Unveiling  of  the  Father*  93 

By  the  lawgivers  and  prophets  and  psalmists 
whom  Christ  recognized  as  His  own  forerun- 
ners and  foretellers.  "  But  I  say  unto  you, 
love  your  enemies,  bless  them  that  curse  you, 
and  pray  for  them  that  despitefully  use  you."  1 

Suppose  that  this  were  all ;  suppose  that  the  Anew  power 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  were  the  whole  of  the 
New  Testament,  what  should  we  behold  in  it  ? 
Not  merely  the  amazing  revelation  of  a  morality 
more  pure  and  perfect  than  any  other  the  human 
heart  has  conceived,  proceeding  from  the  lips 
of  an  unlearned  Nazarene  peasant  of  the  first 
century,  but  the  absolutely  overwhelming  sight 
of  a  believing  Hebrew  placing  Himself  above 
the  rule  of  His  own  faith,  a  humble  teacher 
asserting  supreme  authority  over  all  human 
conduct,  a  moral  reformer  discarding  all  other 
foundations,  and  saying,  "  Every  one  that  hear- 
eth  these  sayings  of  mine  and  doeth  them,  I 
will  liken  him  unto  a  wise  man  which  built  his 
house  upon  a  rock."2  Nine  and  forty  times,  in 
the  brief  and  fragmentary  record  of  the  dis- 
courses of  Jesus,  recurs  this  solemn  phrase 
with  which  He  authenticates  the  truth :  Verily, 
I  say  unto  you.  And  every  time  that  the  dis- 
ciples heard  it  they  must  have  gotten  a  new 
idea  of  what  it  meant  to  be  the  Christ. 

*  St.  Matt.  v.  43,  44.  2  St.  Matt.  vii.  24. 


94  The   Unveiling  of  the  Father 

Anew  Think   also   of    the    significance   which  the 

'humanity.  favour^e  Messianic  title  used  by  Jesus  to  de- 
scribe Himself  must  have  had  to  their  minds. 
He  called  Himself  "  the  Son  of  man."  *  Why  ? 
Was  it  because  He  was  merely  human?  If 
that  was  all,  surely  it  would  not  need  to 
be  asserted  and  emphasized  again  and  again. 
Imagine  any  other  man,  the  highest  and  the 
holiest,  insisting  upon  the  reality  of  his  human 
life,  dwelling  upon  it,  repeating  the  assertion 
of  it  over  and  over.  But  this  title  was,  in  fact, 
the  claim  to  a  peculiar  and  supreme  relation  to 
the  human  race.  Christ  was  not  a  son  of  man, 
but  the  Son  of  man,  one  who,  in  the  luminous 
words  of  Irenseus,  recapitulavit  in  se  ipso  longam 
hominum  expositionem.2  And  as  such  He  as- 
sumed on  earth  and  in  His  prevision  of  heaven 
a  position  which  no  mere  man  could  rightly 
take.  "  The  Son  of  man  hath  power  on  earth 
to  forgive  sins."3  "The  Son  of  man  is  Lord 
also  of  the  Sabbath."4  "When  the  Son  of 
man  shall  come  in  His  glory,  and  all  the  holy 

1  In  St.  Matthew,  30  times ;   in  St.  Luke,  25  times ;  in 
St.  Mark,  14  times. 

2  Irenseus,  Adv.  H&r.,  iii.  18.  1  :    "He  summed  up  in 
himself  the  long  unfolding  of  humanity."     The  Syriac  ver- 
sion of  this  passage  is  equally  beautiful  and  significant: 
«*  He  commenced  afresh  the  long  line  of  men." 

8  St.  Matt.  ix.  6.  *  St.  Mark  ii.  28. 


The   Unveiling  of  the  Fathef  95 

angels  with  Him,  then  shall  He  sit  upon  the 
throne  of  His  glory ;  and  before  Him  shall  be 
gathered  all  nations,  and  He  shall  separate 
them  one  from  another,  as  a  shepherd  divideth 
the  sheep  from  the  goats."1 

Consider  what  this  implied.  It  was  a  decla-  A  supreme 
ration  that  Jesus  expected,  and  was  willing,  to 
take  into  His  own  hands  the  task  of  discrimi-  world. 
nating  between  the  good  and  the  bad  in  the 
unsearchable  confusions  and  complexities  of 
the  human  heart,  and  of  determining,  without 
hesitation,  without  misgiving,  without  redress, 
the  final  destinies  of  the  untold  myriads  of 
men ;  "  an  office,"  it  has  been  well  said,  "  in- 
volving such  spiritual  insight,  such  discern- 
ment of  the  thoughts  and  intents  of  the  heart 
of  each  one  of  the  millions  at  His  feet,  such 
awful,  unshared  supremacy  in  the  moral  world, 
that  the  imagination  recoils  in  sheer  agony 
from  the  task  of  seriously  contemplating  the 
assumption  of  these  duties  by  any  created  in- 
telligence."2 When  the  disciples  heard  their 
Master  declare  that  He  would  fulfil  this  office 
of  Judge  of  the  World,  they  must  have  begun 
to  feel  what  it  meant  to  be  the  Christ. 

1  St.  Matt.  xxv.  31,  32. 

2  H.  P.  Liddon,   The  Divinity  of  Our  Lord  (London, 
1885),  p.  176. 


96  The   Unveiling  of  the  Father 

What  u  Nor  do  I  suppose  that  they  realized  at  first 

the  Son  of      the   f  ull  intention   of    that  second  phrase   in 
God.  which  their  view  of  Jesus  was  expressed.      The 

Son  of  the  living  Crod,  —  that  also  was  an  idea 
to  be  gradually  apprehended  and  unfolded. 
And  think  what  light  must  have  fallen  upon 
it  from  the  conduct  of  Jesus  as  they  followed 
Him  from  day  to  day.  The  more  closely  they 
knew  Him,  the  more  deeply  they  felt  His  sin- 
less purity  and  sovereign  virtue.  There  was  a 
certainty,  an  independence,  a  freedom  from  all 
effort  and  from  all  restraint  in  His  goodness, 
such  as  no  other  good  man  has  ever  shown. 
He  had  the  deepest  knowledge  of  the  evil  of 
sin,  yet  no  shadow  or  stain  of  it  fell  upon  His 
own  soul.  He  was  on  terms  of  closest  inti- 
macy—  an  intimacy  such  as  no  saint  ever 
dared  to  assume  —  with  God.  He  conversed 
with  the  Father  in  a  friendship  which  was 
utterly  without  fear  or  regret  or  misgiving. 
Christ's  own  Now  when  the  disciples  saw  this,  it  must  have 

words* 

put  them  upon  deep  thoughts,  and  the  guidance 
to  these  thoughts  was  given  by  Christ's  own 
words  about  Himself.  He  put  Himself  side  by 
side  with  the  Divine  activity.  "  My  Father 
worketh  hitherto  and  I  work."1  The  Jews 
who  heard  Him  say  this,  sought  to  kill  Him, 
1  St.  John  v.  17. 


The   Unveiling  of  the  Father  97 

because  He  had  not  only  broken  the  Sabbath, 
but  said  also  that  God  was  His  Father,  making 
Himself  equal  with  God.  And  if  the  Jews 
thought  this,  what  did  His  own  disciples  think  ? 
He  claimed  a  Divine  origin  and  mission  :  "  I 
came  forth  from  the  Father ;  " 1  "  My  Father 
sent  me. "  2  He  claimed  a  Divine  knowledge  and 
fellowship  :  "  No  man  knoweth  the  Father  save 
the  Son;"3  "O  righteous  Father,  the  world 
hath  not  known  Thee,  but  I  have  known 
Thee."4  He  claimed  to  unveil  the  Father's 
being  in  Himself  :  "  He  that  hath  seen  me  hath 
seen  the  Father.  I  am  in  the  Father  and  the 
Father  in  me."5 

To  what  conclusion  must  such  conduct  and  The 
such  words  as  these  lead  the  disciples  in  their 
interpretation  of  the  true  meaning  of  the  title 
"  the  Son  of  God  "  ?  A  conclusion  which  Jesus 
Himself,  if  He  was  as  wise  and  good  as  all  men 
admit,  must  inevitably  have  foreseen.  A  con- 
clusion which  He  Himself,  if  He  had  been  only 
a  holy  man,  better  than  His  disciples  but  of 
the  same  nature,  would  certainly  have  guarded 
against  and  prevented  at  any  cost.  A  con- 
clusion which  is  expressed  in  the  attitude  of 

1  St.  John  xvi.  28.  8  St.  Matt.  xi.  27. 

2  St.  John  xii.  49.  4  St.  John  xvii.  25. 

6  St  John  xiv.  9,  11. 


98  The   Unveiling  of  the  Father 

Thomas,  kneeling  at  the  feet  of  Christ  and 
crying,  "My  Lord  and  my  God."1  A  conclu- 
sion which  is  finally  and  definitively  embodied 
in  the  action  of  the  apostles  going  out  into  the 
world  to  disciple  all  nations,  and  to  baptize 
them  "  into  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the 
Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost."2 

n 

The  disci-  There  cannot  be  any  question  as  to  the  state 
Pthat  Christ  °^  min(l  which  this  action  implied.  It  was  the 
was  Divine,  deep  conviction,  not  necessarily  reasoned  out 
and  formulated,  but  lying  at  the  very  root  of 
conduct,  that  Jesus  Christ  the  Son  was  the  un- 
veiling of  His  Father  God,  and  that  the  Holy 
Spirit  who  came  upon  the  disciples  was  the 
Spirit  of  the  Father  and  the  Son.  The  part 
which  the  resurrection  played  in  the  clarifying 
and  confirming  of  this  conviction  was  impor- 
tant. But  we  must  not  misunderstand  the 
meaning  of  the  resurrection.  It  was  not  in 
any  sense  a  new  and  different  revelation  of 
God,  imagined  or  actually  received.  Whatever 
the  form  in  which  Jesus  appeared  to  the  dis- 
ciples during  the  forty  days  that  followed  His 
death,  He  was  recognized  as  the  same  Jesus  ; 
and  the  one  effect  of  His  appearance  was 
*  St.  John  xx.  28.  2  St.  Matt,  xxviii.  19. 


The   Unveiling  of  the  Father  99 

simply  to  confirm  and  deepen  the  truth  of  what 
He  had  said  and  done  while  He  was  with  them. 
And  with  this  confirmation  the  truth  took  shape 
and  substance  as  an  active  and  enduring  power 
in  human  faith  and  life  and  worship. 

There  is  no  more  room  for  doubt  that  the 
early  Christians  saw  in  Christ  a  personal  un- 
veiling of  God,  than  that  the  friends  and  fol- 
lowers of  Abraham  Lincoln  regarded  him  as  a 
good  and  loyal  American  citizen  of  the  white 
race.  And  even  if  we  could  find  no  direct  and 
definite  statement  of  either  of  these  views,  the 
evidence  that  men  held  them  could  be  clearly 
and  certainly  read  in  the  facts  of  history. 

Divine   honours  were  paid  to  Christ  in  the   The  early 

...          ^,,          ,         rr,1        ~  Church 

primitive   Church.     The  first  common   prayer 


of  the  disciples,  when  they  were  assembled  to  Christ. 
choose  an  apostle  in  the  place  of  the  traitor 
Judas,  was  addressed  to  Christ.1  The  Chris- 
tians were  distinguished  both  from  the  Jews 
and  from  the  heathen  as  those  who  called  upon 
the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.2  The  dying 
martyr  Stephen  showed  what  was  meant  by  this 
phrase  in  his  prayer,  "  Lord  Jesus,  receive  my 
spirit."3  Saul  of  Tarsus,  when  he  was  con- 

1  Acts  i.  24.    See  Alford  in  Joe. 

2  Acts  ix.  21  ;  1  Cor.  i.  2. 
*  Acts  vii.  59. 


100  The  Unveiling  of  the  Father 

vinced  by  that  strange  experience  on  the  road 
to  Damascus  that  Jesus  was  not  an  impostor, 
but  the  Christ,  at  once  addressed  Him  in 
prayer,  "Lord,  what  wilt  thou  have  me  to 
do?"1  And  Ananias,  who  received  Saul  into 
the  Church,  asked  guidance  and  direction  from 
the  same  Lord.2  Peter  baptized  the  multi- 
tudes on  the  day  of  Pentecost  in  the  name  of 
Jesus  Christ.3  John  wrote  of  prayer  to  the 
Son  of  God  as  a  familiar  ground  of  confidence 
in  Christian  experience.4  The  apostolic  bene- 
diction was :  "  The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  the  love  of  God,  and  the  communion 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  be  with  you  all."5  The 
whole  current  of  adoration  and  devotion  in  the 
New  Testament  leads  up  naturally  and  without 
surprise  to  the  magnificent  words  of  St.  Paul, 
in  which  he  speaks  of  "  Christ,  who  is  over  all, 
God  blessed  forever."6 

It  should  be  frankly  recognized  that  the  first 
Christians  assigned  a  certain  subordination  to 
the  Son  in  relation  to  the  Father ;  but  it  must 
be  admitted  with  equal  candour  that  this  sub- 
ordination was  not  in  any  sense  a  separation, 

i  Acts  ix.  6.  2  Acts  ix.  13.  »  Acts  ii.  38. 

*  I  John  v.  13-15.  5  2  Cor.  xiii.  14. 

6  Kom.  ix.  5.  Cf.  Stevens,  The  Pauline  Theology,  p.  201, 
for  a  succinct  statement  of  the  grounds  on  which  this  inter- 
pretation of  the  text  is  preferred, 


The   Unveiling  of  the  Father  101 

and  that  it  really  implied  and  involved  a  unity 
between  them  which  made  it  possible  and  nat- 
ural and  inevitable  for  the  disciples  to  pay  an 
adoration  to  the  Son  with  the  Father,  which,  if 
it  had  been  offered  to,  or  claimed  by,  the  great- 
est and  best  of  the  apostles,  would  have  been 
instantly  repudiated  by  the  whole  Church  as 
not  only  absurd  but  radically  blasphemous. 

It  is  an  easy  matter  to  trace  the  worship  of 
Christ  in  the  later  development  of  Christianity. 
There  are  two  sources  of  evidence  :  the  Chris- 
tian hymns  and  liturgies  ;  the  heathen  attacks 
and  the  apologies  which  they  evoked. 

The  earliest  hymns  of  the  Greek  Church,  the   The  testi- 


"Thanksgiving  at  lamplight  ing,"  "  Shepherd  of 
tender  youth,"  "  The  Bridegroom  cometh,"  the 
"  Hymn  to  Christ  after  Silence,"  celebrate  the 
praise  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  Syriac  poetry,  through 
its  great  poet,  Ephrem  Syrus,  takes  up  the  same 
strain  of  adoration  to  the  Son  of  God,  and  its 
undying  music  may  still  be  heard  among  the 
mountains  of  Armenia  where  the  unspeakable 
Turk  is  exterminating  a  whole  race  for  loyalty 
to  the  name  of  Christ.  Latin  hymnody,  from 
its  earliest  origin  in  translations  from  the  Greek 
like  the  Gloria  in  Excelsis  and  the  Te  Deum, 
through  its  splendid  unfolding  in  the  poetry 
of  Hilary  of  Poictiers,  Ambrose  of  Milan,  and 


102  The   Unveiling  of  the  Father 

Gregory  the  Great,  to  its  sweet  culmination  in 
the  two  Bernards,  him  of  Clairvaux  and  him  of 
Cluny,  repeats  the  same  burden  : 

"  O  Jesus,  Thou  the  glory  art 

Of  angel  worlds  above  ; 
Thy  name  is  music  to  my  heart, 
Enchanting  it  with  love." 

In  every  land  and  language,  in  German,  in 
French,  in  English,  the  most  precious  and 
potent  melodies  of  the  Church  are  fragrant  with 
the  name  of  Christ. 

The  testi-  The  early  liturgies  bear  the  same  testimony 
™ariyiitur-  ^°  the  pre-eminence  of  the  Lord  Jesus  in  the 
gies.  doxologies  and  supplications  of  Christian  faith. 

The  Apostolical  Constitutions,1  the  liturgy  of 
St.  James,2  the  liturgy  of  St.  Mark,3  the  liturgy 
of  St.  Adseus  and  St.  Maris,4  unquestionably 
preserve  the  spirit  of  the  early  Christian  wor* 
ship;  and  they  all  are  witnesses  to  the  fact  that 
the  Christians  prayed  directly  to  Christ.  In- 
deed, it  lies  upon  the  very  surface  of  history 
that  the  growth  of  Christianity,  as  manifested 

1  Apost.  Const.,  Book  VIII.,  chap.  vii. 

2  The  Divine   Liturgy  of  St.  James,  iii. :    "  Sovereign 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  O  Word  of  God,"  etc. 

8  The  Divine  Liturgy  of  the  Holy  Apostle  and  Evangelist 
Mark,  v.,  xxii.,  etc. 

4  Liturgy  of  the  Blessed  Apostles,  composed  by  St.  Ad&us 
and  St.  Maris,  xiv. 


The   Unveiling  of  the  Father  103 

in  a  spreading  worship,  was  not  simply  the  in- 
crease of  those  who  were  willing  to  adore  God 
on  the  authority  of  Christ.  It  was  distinctly 
and  essentially  the  diffusion  of  an  inward  force 
which  impelled  men  to  blend  the  name  of  Christ 
with  the  name  of  God  in  their  prayers,  and  to 
worship  the  Son  with  the  Father.  The  beauti- 
ful Prayer  of  St.  Chrysostom,  which  closes  the 
Litany  and  the  Morning  and  Evening  Prayers 
of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  is  addressed 
to  Christ,  "  who  dost  promise  that  when  two  or 
three  are  gathered  together  in  Thy  name,  Thou 
wilt  grant  their  requests."1  There  is  not  in 
the  world  to-day  a  single  great  liturgy,  Greek, 
Roman,  Armenian,  French,  German,  Scotch,  or 
English,  which  does  not  contain  ascriptions  of 
divine  glory,  and  petitions  for  divine  grace, 
addressed  to  Jesus  Christ. 

Heathen  writers  of  very  early  date  assure  us  The  testi- 
that  this  was  the  practice  of  Christians  from 
the  beginning.  The  younger  Pliny  reported 
to  the  Emperor  Trajan  that  the  people  called 
Christians  were  accustomed  to  assemble  before 
daybreak  and  "  sing  a  hymn  of  praise  respon- 
sively  to  Christ,  as  it  were  to  God."2  In  the 

i  St.  Matt,  xviii.  20. 

2A.D.  112.  See  the  chapter  on  "Pliny's  Report  and 
Trajan's  Rescript"  in  Ramsay,  The  Church  in  the  Roman 
Empire  (New  York,  Putnam,  1893),  pp.  196  ff. 


104  The   Unveiling  of  the  Father 

public  trials  that  followed  there  was  never  any 
denial  of  this  statement.  It  was  admitted  alike 
by  those  who  apostatized  under  the  pressure  of 
persecution  and  by  those  who  remained  faithful 
to  the  name  of  Christ.  The  Emperor  Hadrian 
wrote  to  Servian  that  of  the  population  of  Alex- 
andria "some  worshipped  Serapis,  and  others 
Christ."  Lucian,  the  pagan  satirist,  says  in 
his  biography  of  Peregrinus  Proteus  :  "  The 
Christians  are  still  worshipping  that  great  man 
who  was  crucified  in  Palestine."1 

Christians  Jn  all  the  apologies  for  the  Christian  religion 
worshipping  wni°n  were  put  'forth  during  the  persecutions 
Christ.  under  Hadrian,  and  his  successors  Antoninus 
Pius  and  Marcus  Aurelius,  there  was  no  at- 
tempt to  refute  the  universal  charge  that  the 
Christians  worshipped  Christ.2  As  if  to  con- 
firm this  evidence  by  one  of  those  indications 
which  are  all  the  more  significant  because  they 
are  so  slight  and  so  clearly  unpremeditated, 
there  still  exists  a  rude  caricature,  scratched 
by  some  careless  hand  upon  the  walls  of  the 

1  Luciani  Samosatensis  Opera,  (Ed.  Leipsic,  1829) ,  Tomus 
iv.,  p.  173. 

2  The  First  Apology  of  Justin  Martyr,  chap.  xiii. :  "  Our 
teacher  of  these  things  is  Jesus  Christ ;  and  that  we  reason- 
ably worship  Him,  having  learned  that  He  is  the  Son  of  the 
true  God  Himself,  and  holding  Him  in  the  second  place,  and 
the  prophetic  Spirit  in  the  third,  we  will  prove." 


The   Unveiling  of  the  Father  105 

Palatine  Palace  in  Rome  not  later  than  the 
beginning  of  the  third  century,  representing  a 
human  figure  with  an  ass's  head  hanging  upon 
a  cross,  while  a  man  stands  before  it  in  the 
attitude  of  worship.  Underneath  is  this  ill- 
spelled  inscription, — 

"  Alexamenos  adore  his  God."  * 

Thus  the  songs  and  prayers  of  believers,  the 
accusations  of  persecutors,  the  sneers  of  seep 
tics,  and  the  coarse  jests  of  mockers  all  join 
in  proving  beyond  a  doubt  that  the  primitive 
Christians  paid  divine  honour  to  the  Lord 
Jesus.  I  do  not  see  how  any  man  can  be  in 
touch  with  Christianity  as  a  living  form  of 
worship  in  the  world,  unless  he  knows  the 
reality  and  appreciates  the  force  of  this  un- 
questionable fact. 

in 

Nor  will  it  be   possible   to  understand  the  Christ  was 
intellectual  and  moral  teachings  of  the  Chris-  theology. 
tian  religion,  as  they  are  recorded  in  the  New 
Testament,  unless  we  put  ourselves  at  the  focal 
point  from  which,  as  a  matter  of  history,  these 
teachings  were  first   conceived   and   then  un- 

1  Das  Spott- Crucifix  der  Romischen  Kaiser  Palaste,  Fer- 
dinand Becker  (Gera,  1876).  Das  Spott-Crucifix  vom  Pala- 
tin,  Franz  Xaver  Kraus  (Freiburg,  1872). 


106  The   Unveiling  of  the  Father 

folded.  Tnis  point  was  the  vision  of  an  un- 
veiling of  the  being  and  mind  of  God  in 
Christ.  It  was  not  merely  that  Jesus  said 
certain  things  about  God  which  men  had  not 
known,  or  had  forgotten.  It  was  that  they 
saw  in  the  coming  of  Christ  a  personal  revela- 
tion of  the  Divine  Being.  And  this  revelation 
touched  and  transformed  every  possible  sphere 
of  thought  and  feeling  in  regard  to  the  prob- 
lems of  religion.  The  personality  of  God  was 
made  distinct  and  luminous,  not  only  by  the 
recognition  of  an  eternal  Fatherhood  in  His 
nature,  but  by  the  light  of  the  knowledge  of 
His  glory  shining  in  the  face  of  a  person.1 
The  righteousness  of  God  was  disclosed  in  a 
new  aspect  by  the  thought  that  He  had  sent 
His  own  Son  in  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh,  and 
for  sin  to  condemn  sin  in  the  flesh.2  The  good- 
ness of  God  was  confirmed  and  made  sufficient 
for  all  possible  human  needs  by  the  conviction 
that  He  who  spared  not  His  own  Son,  but  freely 
delivered  Him  up  for  us  all,  would  also  with 
Him  freely  give  us  all  things.3  The  saving 
will  and  power  of  God  were  apprehended 
through  the  vision  of  Him  in  Christ  reconcil- 
ing the  world  to  Himself.4  The  everlasting 

1  2  Cor.  iv.  6.  2  Rom.  viii.  3. 

«  Rom.  viii.  32.  *  2  Cor.  v.  19. 


The   Unveiling  of  the  Father  107 

and  inseparable  love  of  God  became  the  sure 
ground  of  hope  only  when  it  was  seen  em- 
bodied in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord.1  The  true 
meaning  of  filial  obedience  to  God  and  of 
union  with  God  was  interpreted  in  the  light 
of  conformity  to  the  image  of  His  Son.2  And 
the  immense  significance  of  immortality  was 
comprehended  in  the  possession  of  a  life  hid 
with  Christ  in  God.3 

Now  the  window  through  which  men  caught  God  was 
sight  of  these  truths  was,  and  could  have  been, 
nothing  else  than  faith  in  a  real  incarnation 
of  God  in  Christ.  The  personal,  moral,  sym- 
pathetic view  of  God  which  distinguished  the 
early  Church  was  seen  only  through  that  open- 
ing.4 She  saw  the  Divine  Being  beaming  with 
a  new  radiance,  she  saw  the  wide  landscape  of 
human  duty  and  destiny  illuminated  and  trans- 
figured, she  saw  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth, 
when  she  saw  in  Christ  all  the  fulness  of  the 
Godhead  dwelling  bodily.  And  it  was  in  the 

i  Rom.  viii.  39.  *  Rom.  viii.  29.          »  Col.  iii.  3. 

4  First  Epistle  of  St.  Clement,  chap,  xxxvi.  :  "By  Him 
we  look  up  to  the  heights  of  heaven.  By  Him  we  behold, 
as  in  a  glass,  His  immaculate  and  most  excellent  visage.  By 
Him  are  the  eyes  of  our  heart  opened.  By  Him  our  foolish 
and  darkened  understanding  blossoms  up  anew  towards  the 
light."  Bp.  Lightfoot's  Edition.  (Macmillan,  1890.) 


108  The   Unveiling  of  the  Father 

strength  and  enthusiasm  of  this  vision,  that  she 
concentrated  all  her  moral  and  intellectual  en- 
ergies on  the  one  point  of  keeping  that  window 
open,  and  maintaining  against  direct  assault 
and  secret  dissolution  the  real  and  personal 
Deity  of  Christ. 

rv 

Christian  I  am  careful  to  put  the  statement  in  this 
grew  around  f°rm  because  I  believe  that  it  alone  corresponds 
the  Deity  of  with  the  facts,  and  because  it  is  only  by  get- 
ting our  minds  into  this  position  that  we  can 
hope  to  understand  the  course,  the  meaning, 
and  the  force  of  Christian  doctrine.  The  early 
Christians  looked  at  God  through  Christ :  they 
did  not  look  at  Christ  through  a  preconceived 
idea  and  a  logical  definition  of  God.  The  true 
development  of  theology,  to  put  the  matter 
plainly,  was  not  abstract,  it  was  personal 
and  practical.  The  doctrine  of  the  Trinity 
came  into  being  to  meet  an  imperious  neces- 
sity. That  necessity  was  'the  defence  of  the 
actual  worship  of  Christ,  the  actual  trust  in 
Christ  as  the  Unveiler  of  the  Father,  which 
already  existed  at  the  heart  of  Christianity. 
It  was  recognized  instinctively  that  the  loss 
of  this  trust,  the  silencing  of  this  worship, 


c 


The   Unveiling  of  the  Fattier  109 

meant  the  death  of  Christianity  by  heart-fail- 
ure. Every  speculation  which  threatened  this 
result,  every  theory  of  human  nature  or  of 
divine  nature  which  seemed  to  separate  the 
personality  of  Christ  from  the  personality  of 
God,  was  regarded  by  the  Church  as  dangerous 
and  hostile.  Every  attempted  statement  of 
theological  dogma  which  appeared  to  obscure 
or  to  imperil  the  reality  and  the  eternal  valid- 
ity of  the  unveiling  of  the  Father  in  the  Son, 
was  resented,  and  a  counter  statement  of  theo- 
logical dogma  was  framed  to  meet  it.  This 
was  the  intellectual  conflict  of  Christianity  in 
the  first  centuries  :  a  struggle  for  life  centring 
about  the  actual  Deity  of  Christ. 

As  we   trace   the   progress  of   this  conflict,   The  conflict 

.,.,,.  ,  with  herety. 

its  vital  importance  emerges  more  and  more 
clearly.  Often,  I  suppose,  we  cannot  help  feel- 
ing a  sense  of  sympathy  with  the  earnest  pur- 
pose and  the  personal  character  of  those  men 
who  were  called  heretics.  Often  we  are  con- 
scious of  a  certain  distrust  for  the  meta- 
physical and  exegetical  arguments,  and  of  a 
grave  repugnance  for  the  physical  and  politi- 
cal methods,  which  were  used  by  the  orthodox 
to  enforce  their  definitions.  Athanasius  was 
not  an  altogether  lovely  person.  Some  of  the 
early  Church  Councils  were  almost  as  disor- 


110  The   Unveiling  of  the  Father 

derly  and  reckless  as  some  of  the  regiments  that 
have  fought  in  various  wars  to  defend  the  cause 
of  human  liberty  and  justice.  But  the  question 
is  not  one  of  the  manner  of  defence  or  attack. 
It  is  a  question  of  the  reality  and  significance  of 
the  cause  attacked  and  defended.  And  here  we 
see  that  Athanasius  with  all  his  faults  was  on 
the  right  side,  and  Arius  with  all  his  virtues 
was  on  the  wrong  side.  Through  all  the  con- 
fusion of  metaphysical  dispute  about  the  exact 
meaning  of  substance  and  subsistence,  nature 
and  personality,  ideal  existence  and  real  exist- 
ence, —  terms  which,  as  I  conceive  them,  must 
change  their  significance  as  the  methods  of 
human  philosophy  change,  and  must  always 
represent  imperfectly  a  mystery  which  is  for 
us  unsearchable  and  indefinable,  —  through  all 
this  confusion  one  fact  shines  out  clear  and  dis- 
tinct. The  unveiling  of  the  Father  in  Christ 
was,  and  continued  to  be,  and  still  is,  the 
Palladium  of  Christianity.  All  who  have  sur- 
rendered it,  for  whatever  reason,  have  been 
dispersed  and  scattered.  All  who  have  de- 
fended it,  in  whatever  method,  have  been  held 
fast  in  the  unity  of  the  faith  and  of  the  know- 
ledge of  the  Son  of  God.1 

i  Eph.  iv.  13. 


The   Unveiling  of  the  Father  111 

This  point  of  view  must  condition  the  atti-  The  doc- 
tude  of  our  minds  towards  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity 
Trinity.  No  Christian  man  can  be  hostile  or  structedto 
indifferent  to  it  when  he  remembers  its  history.  j)eity  Of 
It  may  have  been  too  much  elaborated  by  minds  Christ. 
over-curious  in  metaphysical  distinctions.  It 
may  have  been  put  in  a  position  of  undue  pre- 
eminence by  theologians  whose  energies  were 
all  absorbed  in  its  construction  and  in  the  con- 
templation of  the  work  of  their  own  reason  in 
the  service  of  Christianity.  But  in  spite  of  all 
excesses  and  errors,  it  stands  as  an  enduring 
monument  of  the  loyalty  of  the  faith  to  its  cen- 
tral conviction.  In  all  its  forms,  from  the 
sharply  tri-personal  Trinity  of  Athanasius,  to 
the  essentially  tri-modal  Trinity  of  Augustine, 
the  great  service  which  it  has  rendered  is  not 
abstract  nor  philosophical.  It  is  practical. 
It  has  protected  the  conviction  that  the  real 
nature  of  God  is  revealed  in  Christ ;  it  has  jus- 
tified the  consciousness  that  the  Spirit  of  Christ, 
animating  the  Christian  life,  is  the  Spirit  of 
God ;  it  has  preserved  the  sense  of  real  com- 
munion with  God  in  Christ  which  is  the  nerve 
of  Christian  worship. 

And  yet  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  is  not  the 
gospel,  nor  is  it  the  foundation  of  the  gospel. 
It  cannot  be  preached  as  a  saving  message  to  the 


112 


The   Unveiling  of  the  Father 


The  doc-  souls  of  men,  except  in  that  form  in  which  we  find 

trinity  ^  {i  in  philliPs  Brooks'  noble  Sermon  for  Trinity 

subordinate  Sunday,  and  Dr.  George  A.  Gordon's  powerful 

o    e  gos-  discourse  on  The  Trinity  the  Ground  of  Humanity. 

Js6t* 

It  is  the  effort  to  apprehend  a  relation  of  the 
Being  of  God  to  the  conscious  experience  of 
man ;  a  truth  exhibited  in  the  course  of  revela- 
tion and  recognized  in  its  mysterious  unfolding 
both  before  and  after  all  efforts  to  symbolize 
it  in  theological  language ;  in  brief,  it  is  the 
reaching  out  of  the  human  mind,  conscious  of 
its  limitations  and  conditions,  towards  a  vision 
and  worship  of  the  Father  in  the  Son  through 
the  Spirit.  The  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  is  not 
the  Palladium.  It  is  the  defence.  I  will  con- 
fess that  in  its  broad  outlines  it  seems  to  me 
necessary  and  satisfactory.  I  will  confess  that 
no  other  answer  to  the  profound  questions 
which  inevitably  arise  out  of  the  contact  be- 
tween the  idea  of  God,  and  the  experience  of 
real  life  in  all  its  rnanifoldness,  appears  to  me 
half  so  reasonable  or  complete  as  that  which 
asserts  that  "  the  various  fundamental  forms  of 
society  on  the  earth,  the  essential  relationships 
of  humanity,  have  their  Archetype,  their  Eter- 
nal Pattern  and  Causal  Source,  in  the  nature  of 
the  Infinite."1  I  will  confess  that  the  form  of 
i  Gordon,  The  Christ  of  To-day,  p.  101. 


The    Unveiling  of  the  Father  113 

this  answer  which  contemplates  the  existence 
of  these  eternal  relationships  in  the  Divine 
nature  as  most  clearly  and  positively  personal, 
is  more  conclusive  to  my  mind  than  any  other. 
But  if  other  men  think  otherwise  on  this  point, 
we  are  not  therefore  divided  from  each  other, 
or  from  the  Christian  faith.  The  question  is 
one  of  metaphysics.  It  is  not  a  question  of  re- 
ligion. All  modes  of  defining  the  Trinity  as  a 
doctrine  must  be  kept  subordinate  to  the  pur- 
pose for  which  it  exists.  All  attempts  to  ex- 
press it  are  valuable  only  in  so  far  as  they  help 
us  to  keep  in  view  the  unveiling  of  the  Divine 
nature  which  centres  in  Him  who  was  mani- 
fested in  the  flesh,  justified  in  the  Spirit,  seen 
of  angels,  preached  among  the  nations,  believed 
on  in  the  world,  received  up  in  glory.1 


Now  wherein  is  a  message  like  this,  the  gos-  The  gospel 
pel  of  a  personal  unveiling  of  God  in  the  per-  °j£^rnatio 
son  of  Christ,  adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  adapted  to 
present  age?  thisage' 

1.    It  seems  to  me  first  of  all  that  the  course 
of  modern  thought  has  prepared  the  way  for  it 
by  destroying  the  a  priori  objections  to  the  In- 
1 1  Tim.  iii.  16. 


114  The   Unveiling  of  the  Father 

Philosophy    carnation.     Shallow  agnosticism  makes  two  as- 

has  cleared 

the  way  for    sumptions  which  are  contradictory.     It  assumes 
**•  that  man  is  unable  to  attain  to  the  knowledge 

of  God ;  and  that  it  is  impossible  for  God  to 
reveal  Himself  to  man.  But  if  we  cannot 
know  Him,  how  can  we  know  that  He  cannot 
reveal  Himself?  This  would  be  in  effect  the 
most  intimate  kind  of  knowledge.  To  take  it 
for  granted  that  an  Incarnation  of  God  is  im- 
possible or  incredible  is  to  profess  a  most  per- 
fect and  exclusive  understanding  of  the  Divine 
nature.  "At  one  time,"  says  Mr.  Romanes, 
"  it  seemed  to  me  impossible  that  any  proposi- 
tion, verbally  intelligible  as  such,  could  be 
more  violently  absurd  than  that  of  the  Incarna- 
tion. Now  I  see  that  this  standpoint  is  wholly 
irrational.  ...  '  But  the  Incarnation  is  op- 
posed to  common  sense.'  No  doubt:  utterly 
so ;  but  so  it  ought  to  be  if  true.  Common 
sense  is  merely  a  rough  register  of  common 
experience.  But  the  Incarnation,  if  it  ever 
took  place,  whatever  else  it  may  have  been, 
was  not  a  common  event.  'But  it  is  deroga- 
tory to  God  to  become  man.'  How  do  you 
know?  Besides,  Christ  was  not  an  ordinary 
man.  Both  negative  criticism  and  the  positive 
effects  of  His  life  prove  this  ;  while  if  we  for  a 
moment  adopt  the  Christian  point  of  view  for 


The  Unveiling  of  the  Father  115 

the  sake  of  argument,  the  whole  raison  d'etre 
of  mankind  is  bound  up  in  Him.  Lastly,  there 
are  considerations  per  contra,  rendering  an  In- 
carnation antecedently  probable."1 

2.  Now  these  considerations  to  which  Ro- 
manes alludes  are  not  foreign  to  the  intellect- 
ual atmosphere  of  our  age ;  they  are  native  to 
it ;  they  are  in  fact  the  offspring  of  the  times, 
born  of  the  spirit  which  now  leads  the  best 
thoughts  of  men. 

The  whole  doctrine  of  development,  as  it  is  Evolution 
conceived  by  the  deepest  and  clearest  minds, 
looks  forward  to  the  discovery  of  an  Incarna- 
tion which  shall  be  at  once  the  crown  and  the 
completion  of  the  process  of  natural  evolution. 
If  nature  is  an  orderly  and  progressive  mani- 
festation of  an  Unseen  Power ;  if  each  succes- 
sive step  in  this  manifestation  realizes  and 
exhibits  something  higher  and  more  perfect, 
to  which  all  that  has  gone  before  has  pointed, 
and  in  which  the  potentialities  of  all  previous 
developments  are  not  only  summed  up,  but 
raised  to  a  new  power ;  if  the  mechanical  struct- 
ure of  inorganic  substances  contains  a  proph- 
ecy (only  to  be  interpreted  after  the  event)  of 
organic  life,  and  organic  life  is  a  basis  for  in- 
stinct and  the  elementary  processes  of  intellect, 
i  Thoughts  on  Religion,  p.  186. 


116  The   Unveiling  of  the  Father 

and  the  rude  forms  of  thought  and  feeling  in 
the  lower  animals  foreshadow  the  unfolding  of 
reflective  reason  and  moral  consciousness  in 
man,  —  then  surely  this  reflective  reason  and 
this  moral  consciousness,  in  themselves  con- 
fessedly imperfect,  must  be  only  the  founda- 
tion for  a  fuller  and  more  perfect  manifestation 
of  that  Unseen  Power  out  of  whose  depths 
all  preceding  manifestations  have  come  forth. 
And  if  the  universal  verdict  of  human  science 
and  philosophy  is  correct  in  assuming  that  the 
lower  must  precede  the  higher,  and  that  or- 
ganic life  is  above  inorganic  life,  and  that  rea- 
son is  above  instinct,  and  that  virtue  is  above 
automatic  action,  then  it  is  to  be  expected  that 
the  complete  manifestation  of  that  Unseen 
Power  which  makes  for  Reason  and  Righteous- 
ness will  neither  be  omitted  nor  intruded  before 
its  time.  It  cannot  come  too  soon,  without  vi- 
olating the  order  of  evolution.  It  cannot  fail 
to  come,  without  destroying  the  significance  of 
evolution. 

But  in  what  form  can  it  come  except  in  one 
which  at  once  sums  up  all  that  has  gone  before 
it,  and  advances  to  a  new  level  ?  If  the  uni- 
verse contains  an  unveiling  of  the  might,  and 
wisdom,  and  reasonableness,  and  righteousness, 
of  its  Primal  Cause,  then  certainly  it  must  con- 


The   Unveiling  of  the  Fathefr  117 

tain  at  last  an  unveiling  of  His  personality. 
This  is  the  only  thing  that  remains  to  be 
added.  This  is  the  only  thing  that  embraces 
all  the  rest  and  raises  it  to  a  new  power.  The 
highest  category  known  to  our  minds  is  that 
of  self-conscious  life.  Without  the  conception 
of  a  personal  God,  man's  view  of  the  universe 
must  remain  forever  incomplete,  incoherent, 
and  unreasonable.  Without  the  revelation  of 
a  personal  God,  the  process  of  evolution  as  the 
unfolding  of  the  real  secret  of  the  universe 
must  remain  unfinished  and  futile.  Philosophy 
as  well  as  religion  pushes  us  forward  to  this 
conclusion.  Personality  is  the  ultimate  reality. 
Personality  must  be  the  final  revelation.  But 
a  person  can  be  unveiled  only  in  a  personal 
form.  Therefore  all  the  presumptions  of  rea- 
son are  in  favour  of  an  Incarnation  of  the 
Deity,  not  outside  of  nature,  but  in  nature,  to 
consummate  and  crown  that  visible  evolution 
whereby  the  invisible  things  of  Him  from  the 
creation  of  the  world  are  clearly  seen.  And 
all  the  processes  of  intelligence  are  satisfied, 
and  rest  and  repose  in  the  conviction  that 
the  Word,  which  was  in  the  beginning  with 
God  and  which  was  God  and  by  whom  all 
things  were  made,  finally  became  flesh  and 
dwelt  among  us,  revealing  His  glory,  the  glory 


118  The   Unveiling  of  the  Father 

as  of  the  only-begotten  of  the  Father,  full  of 
grace  and  truth.1 

The  gospel  3.  Moreover,  this  view  of  Christ  is  adapted 
incarnation  ^°  *^e  Present  age  because  it  is  historically  con- 
sistent.  We  have  seen  that  it  underlies  the 
very  existence  and  growth  of  the  Christian 
Church.  The  testimony  of  eighteen  centuries 
to  the  impossibility  of  explaining  the  person- 
ality of  Christ  on  humanitarian  grounds  is  in 
itself  an  evidence  of  His  divinity. 

Lincoln  was  right  when  he  said  :  "  You  can 
fool  some  of  the  people  all  of  the  time,  and  all 
of  the  people  some  of  the  time,  but  you  can- 
not fool  all  of  the  people  all  of  the  time."  A 
thousand  attempts  to  account  for  the  life  of 
Christ  without  admitting  His  divinity  have 
been  made.  Not  one  of  them  has  succeeded 
in  winning  the  assent  and  approbation  of  any 
great  mass  of  men  for  any  great  length  of 
time.  They  have  hardly  survived  the  lives  of 
those  who  have  invented  them.  Each  new 
naturalistic  theory  of  Christ  has  discredited 
and  demolished  its  predecessors.  And  if  any 
one  of  them  is  alive  and  finds  credence  to-day, 
it  is  only  because  it  is  the  latest,  and  it  is  but 

1  See  Lyman  Abbott,  The  Evolution  of  Christianity 
(Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  1894),  "Christ  is  not  the  prod- 
uct of  evolution,  but  the  producer,"  pp.  240-242. 


The   Unveiling  of  the  Father          119 

waiting  for  its  successor  (as  the  theory  of 
Socinus  waited  for  the  theory  of  Strauss,  and 
the  theory  of  Strauss  for  the  theory  of  Renan) 
to  be  its  judge  and  destroyer. 

Meantime  historic  Christianity,  which  be-  The 
holds  God  incarnate  in  Christ,  stands  as  a  rock 
around  which  the  tides  of  opinion  ebb  and  flow, 
The  Church  has  changed  in  some  things,  but 
not  in  this.  It  has  modified,  enlarged,  dimin- 
ished, or  abandoned  some  articles  of  faith,  but 
not  this.  If  it  be  an  error,  it  is  such  an  error 
as  the  world  has  never  seen  anywhere  else ; 
for  it  has  not  only  stood  firm  through  the 
fiercest  and  most  persistent  storm  of  criticism 
that  has  ever  been  directed  against  any  human 
opinion,  but  it  has  also  been  the  foundation  of 
the  strongest  and  saintliest  lives  that  humanity 
has  ever  known.  If  it  be  a  truth,  it  must  be 
for  every  Christian  preacher  the  central  truth. 
For  it  is  certain  that  this  age  of  ours,  with 
its  ruthless  critical  spirit,  with  its  keen  histori- 
cal sense,  will  never  respect  the  intelligence, 
though  it  may  acknowledge  the  good  inten- 
tions, of  a  man  who  professes  to  speak  in  the 
name  of  Christianity  without  proclaiming,  as 
the  core  of  his  message,  the  Divine  Christ. 

4.    And  this  gospel  meets  the  need  of  our 
times  because  it  is  the  satisfaction  of  humanity. 


120 


The  Unveiling  of  the  Father 


The  incar- 
nation 
satisfies  the 
human 
heart. 


More  urgent  and  painful  even  than  the  ques- 
tions of  the  intellect  in  regard  to  the  being  and 
nature  of  God,  are  the  misgivings  of  the  heart 
in  regard  to  His  relations  to  us.  If  He  is  that 
remote  and  inaccessible  Sovereign 

"Who  sees  with  equal  eyes,  as  Lord  of  all, 
A  hero  perish  or  a  sparrow  fall," 

what  possible  answer  can  we  find  in  Him  to 
the  longings  and  desires  of  our  souls  for  a 
Divine  love  ?  what  possible  support  can  we  find 
in  Him  for  our  struggles  against  outward 
temptation  and  indwelling  evil  ?  what  possible 
sympathy  can  we  find  in  Him  for  our  hopes 
and  aspirations  and  upward  strivings,  out  of 
the  quicksands  of  heredity  and  environment, 
towards  liberty  and  light  ?  The  religion  of 
the  Incarnation  is  the  only  one  that  brings  us 
near  to  Him,  assures  us  of  our  kinship  with 
Him,  and  of  His  infinite,  practical,  helpful  love 
for  us.  This  faith  alone  bridges  the  chasm 
that  divides  the  eternal  self-existent  Spirit 
from  our  finite,  despondent,  earthbound  souls. 
This  faith  alone  gives  us  any  knowledge  of  the 
things  that  we  most  need  to  know  about  Him. 
Deism  is  like  a  message  written  in  an  inscruta- 
ble hieroglyph  which  conveys  no  clear  meaning 
to  the  mind.  Theism  is  like  a  message  which 
is  intelligible  to  the  intellect,  but  unsatisfac- 


The   Unveiling  of  the  Father  121 

tory  to  the  heart,  because  it  has  no  personal 
address  and  no  signature.  Christianity  is  a  per- 
sonal message,  signed  by  the  hand  of  a  Father, 
and  conveyed  to  us  by  the  hand  of  the  Son. 

The  comparison  is  imperfect.  It  falls  far  Christ  is 
short  of  the  truth.  In  Christianity  the  mes-  ^ 
senger  is  the  message.  The  love  which  sent 
and  the  love  which  delivered  it  are  the  same. 
Christ  is  Immanuel,  God  with  us.  The  gospel 
of  the  Incarnation  does  not  profess  to  remove 
all  intellectual  perplexities  in  regard  to  the 
existence  of  God  and  our  own  souls.  It  pro- 
fesses simply  to  establish  such  a  conscious  re- 
lation between  our  souls  and  God  that  our 
ethical  needs  shall  be  satisfied  at  once ;  and 
thus  it  shall  be  infinitely  easier,  either  to  dis- 
solve, or  to  endure,  our  intellectual  perplexi- 
ties. This  relation  is  possible  only  in  Christ. 
And  it  is  possible  in  Him  only  when  we  receive 
Him  as  the  unveiling  of  the  Father.  This  re- 
quires an  act  of  faith.  But  it  is  a  faith  which 
is  simpler  in  its  form,  more  natural  in  its 
method,  and  more  profound  in  its  spiritual  re- 
sults than  any  other.  For  in  the  last  analysis 
it  is  just  an  act  of  personal  confidence  in  a 
person.  And  this  does  not  demand  perfect 
knowledge,  but  absolute  trust. 


122  The   Unveiling  of  the  Father 

The  Deity  of      To  imagine  that  we  can  adapt  our  preaching 

Christ  isthe,,T.  „    ,      ,  .    ,  '      .  _ . 

strength  of  to  tnis  age  °*  doubt  by  weakening,  concealing, 
ow  gospel,  or  abandoning  the  truth  of  the  Deity  of  Christ 
is  to  mistake  the  great  need  of  our  times.  It 
is  to  seek  to  commend  our  gospel  by  taking 
away  from  it  the  chief  thing  that  men  really 
want,  —  an  assurance  of  sympathy  and  kinship 
with  God.  "One  of  the  great  marks  of  the 
youth  of  to-day,"  says  Ernest  Lavisse,  —  "I 
speak  of  thinking  youth,  —  is  a  longing  for  the 
Divine."1  This  longing  is  to  be  met  not  by 
slighting,  but  by  emphasizing,  not  by  clouding, 
but  by  clarifying,  not  by  withdrawing,  but  by 
advancing,  the  true  Deity  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  Let  us  take  up  the  words  of  the  ancient 
creed :  "  We  believe  in  one  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
the  Son  of  Grod,  only-begotten  of  the  Father,  that 
is  of  the  substance  of  the  Father,  Gf-od  of  Crod, 
Light  of  Light,  very  Grod  of  Gf-od,  begotten,  not 
made,  being  of  one  substance  with  the  Father: 
by  Whom  all  things  were  made  which  are  in 
heaven  and  earth :  Who,  for  us  men  and  for  our 
salvation,  came  down,  and  was  incarnate,  and  was 
made  man,  and  suffered,  and  rose  the  third  day, 
and  ascended  into  the  heavens,  and  shall  come 
to  judge  the  quick  and  the  dead."2 

1  Ernest  Lavisse,  La  Generation  de  1890. 

2  Symbolum  Nicsenum,  The  Creeds  of  Christendom,  Vol. 
ii.  (Harpers,  1882). 


IV 

THE  HUMAN  LIFE  OF  GOD 


Behold  Him  now  where  He  comes ! 

Not  the  Christ  of  our  subtle  creeds, 

But  the  light  of  our  hearts,  of  our  homes, 

Of  our  hopes,  our  prayers,  our  needs ; 

The  brother  of  want  and  blame, 

The  lover  of  women  and  men, 

With  a  love  that  puts  to  shame 

All  passions  of  mortal  ken. 

****** 

Ah  no,  thou  life  of  the  heart, 

Never  shalt  thou  depart ! 

Not  till  the  leaven  of  God 

Shall  lighten  each  human  clod ; 

Not  till  the  world  shall  climb 

To  thy  height  serene,  sublime, 

Shall  the  Christ  who  enters  our  door 

Pass  to  return  no  more." 

—  RICHARD  WATSON  GILDER, 
The  Passing  of  Christ. 


IV 

THE  HUMAN  LIFE   OF  GOD 

NEARLY  fifty  years   ago,  Horace   Bushnell,  A  great 

/  /   ,  truth  in 

the  most  mystical  of  logicians,  or  the  most  logi-  ecupse. 

cal  of  mystics,  delivered  before  Yale  University 
a  magnificent  discourse  upon  The  Divinity  of 
Christ.  In  that  fine  work  of  genius,  wrought 
out  of  darkness  and  light,  mystery  and  clear- 
ness, like  an  intricate  carving  of  ebony  and 
gold,  I  find  these  words:  "Christ  is  in  such 
a  sense  God,  or  God  manifested,  that  the  un- 
known term  of  His  nature,  that  which  we  are 
most  in  doubt  of,  and  about  which  we  are  least 
capable  of  any  positive  affirmation,  is  the 
human."1 

This  sentence,  it  seems  to  me,  is  not  of  light, 
but  of  darkness.  It  does  not  represent  that 
illuminating  and  harmonious  kind  of  truth 
which  comes  directly  from  the  divine  revelation 
of  Christ.  It  belongs  rather  to  that  obscured 

1  Horace  Bushnell,  God  in  Christ  (New  York,  Scribners, 
1887),  p.  123. 

126 


126 


The  Human  Life  of  Crod 


Theology 
has  lost 
sight  of 
Christ's 
humanity. 


and  discordant  manner  of  presenting  truth 
which  is  the  consequence  of  studying  it  too 
much  at  second-hand  and  too  little  at  first- 
hand, too  much  in  the  speculations  and  reason- 
ings of  men  and  too  little  in  the  facts  of  life 
wherein  it  was.  first  manifested.  Whatever 
may  be  said  of  this  sentence  as  a  statement  of 
the  result  of  dogmatic  theology,  —  and  in  this 
sense  I,  for  one,  do  not  question  its  accuracy, 
— when  we  consider  its  plain  meaning  as  an 
expression  of  Christian  experience  and  faith, 
one  thing  is  clear :  It  is  utterly  out  of  touch 
with  the  experience  and  faith  of  the  first  dis- 
ciples. It  is  in  sharp  and  striking  discord 
with  the  consciousness  of  the  primitive  Church. 
For  if  there  is  anything  in  regard  to  which  the 
New  Testament  makes  positive  and  undoubting 
affirmation,  it  is  the  complete,  genuine,  and 
veritable  humanity  of  Christ.  If  there  is  any 
fact  which  stands  out  luminous  and  distinct 
in  the  experience  of  the  early  Christians,  it  is 
that  they  saw  in  Christ,  not  merely  a  myste- 
rious manifestation  of  the  Divine  in  a  form  cal- 
culated to  beget  new  doubts,  and  under  con- 
ditions which  must  remain  inscrutable  and 
incomprehensible,  but  something  utterly  differ- 
ent. They  saw  the  mystery  reduced  to  terms 
of  simplicity,  the  revelation  levelled  to  the 


The  Human  Life  of  God  127 

direct  apprehension  of  man,  the  unveiling  of 
the  Father  under  conditions  which  were  so 
familiar  that  they  dissolved  doubts  and  diffi- 
culties. They  saw  in  Christ  the  human  life 
of  God. 

The  object  of  this  lecture  is,  first,  to  trace  How  shall 
very  briefly  the  way  in  which  this  view  of 
Christ  has  been  beclouded  so  that  His  human- 
ity has  appeared  doubtful  and  less  capable  of 
positive  affirmation ;  second,  to  show  how  the 
primitive  view  of  His  person  and  life  may  be, 
and  in  the  history  of  Christian  faith  often  has 
been,  recovered  and  restored  to  its  pristine 
brilliancy  and  beauty;  and  third,  to  try  to 
express,  though  but  imperfectly,  the  meaning 
and  importance  of  this  view  for  the  present 
age. 


Definition  is  dangerous.     Necessary  it  may  Obscuration 
be  ;  useful  it  undoubtedly  is ;  but  our  recogni-  bvSormula& 
tion  of   these  qualities  ought  not  to  make  us 
forget  or  deny  the  peril  which  the  process  cer- 
tainly involves.     And  this  is  the  nature  of  the 
danger :    the    definition  has   an   inherent  ten- 
dency to  substitute  itself  for  the  thing  defined. 
The  terms  in  which  a  fact  is  expressed  creep 
into  the  place  of  the  fact  itself.     The  reality  is 


128 


The  Human  Life  of  God 


An  illustra- 
tion from 
the  history 
of  Art. 


removed  insensibly  to  a  remote  distance  behind 
the  verbal  symbols  which  represent  it.  The 
way  of  access  to  it  is  blocked,  and  its  influ- 
ence is  restricted  by  the  forms  of  expression 
invented  to  define  it. 

I  do  not  know  where  we  can  find  a  more  vivid 
illustration  of  this  process  than  that  which  is 
given,  in  many  ways,  in  the  history  of  art.  The 
first  effort  of  the  artist  is  to  represent  something 
that  he  has  seen  or  imagined.  Out  of  this 
effort  and  the  work  which  it  produces,  grow 
certain  methods  and  habits  of  representing 
landscape  and  architecture  and  the  human 
figure.  Out  of  these  habits  grow  rules  and 
formulas,  not  only  for  the  hand  but  also  for  the 
eye.  On  these  formulas  schools  are  founded. 
In  these  schools  the  example  of  masters  comes 
to  have  an  authority  which  overshadows  and 
limits  the  vision  of  facts  as  well  as  the  repre- 
sentation of  them.  The  Japanese  artists,  of 
certain  schools,  actually  reproduce  that  infan- 
tile condition  of  sight  in  which  all  things 
appear  flat,  in  a  single  plane,  without  perspec- 
tive. The  Giotteschi  of  Italy  carried  their 
disregard  of  anatomy  to  such  a  point  that 
joints  and  articulations  vanished  from  the 
human  figure. 


The  Human  Life  of  G-O&  129 

Now  this  same  process  of  limitation  by  for-  Representa- 
mulas  may  be  observed,  on  the  ideal  side,  in 
the  course  of  religious  art.  The  first  pictures 
of  Christ,  traced  in  colour  upon  the  walls  of 
the  Catacombs,  or  carved  in  stone  upon  the  sar- 
cophagi of  the  Christian  dead,  do  not  give  us 
indeed  the  very  earliest  conception  of  Him ;  for 
the  Christian  art  of  the  first  two  centuries,  if  it 
ever  existed,  has  long  since  perished.  But  that 
which  remains,  dating  from  the  third  and  fourth 
centuries,  bears  witness  to  an  idea  of  the  Christ 
which  was  simple  and  natural  and  humane. 
He  appears  as  a  figure  of  youthful  beauty  and 
graciousness ;  the  good  Shepherd  bearing  a 
lamb  upon  His  shoulders ;  the  true  Orpheus 
drawing  all  creatures  and  souls  by  the  charm 
of  His  amiable  music.1  These  are  only  sym- 
bolic representations,  yet  they  evidence  a  con- 
ception of  Him  which  was  still  in  touch  with 
the  facts.  A  little  later  we  find  an  effort  to 
conceive  and  depict  Him  with  more  realism. 
His  face  appears  in  pictures  which  resemble 
the  description  given  in  the  spurious  Epistle 
of  Lentulus :  "  A  man  of  dignified  presence, 
with  dark  hair  parted  in  the  middle  and 
flowing  down,  after  the  custom  of  the  Naza- 

1  So  in  the  paintings  from  the  Catacombs  of  &.  Agnete 
and  S.  Callisto. 


130  The  Human  Life  of  Gf-od 

renes,  over  both  shoulders  ;  His  brow  clear 
and  pure  ;  His  unfurrowed  face  of  pleasant 
aspect  and  medium  complexion ;  His  mouth 
and  nose  faultless ;  His  short,  light  beard 
parted  in  the  middle  ;  His  eyes  bright  and 
lustrous."1 

Tradition  But  when  we  pass  on  to  the  creations  of  so- 
Ghristian  called  Byzantine  art,  we  find  ourselves  face  to 
Art-  face  with  an  utterly  different  view  of  the  Christ. 

His  countenance  now  stares  out  in  glittering 
mosaic  from  the  walls  of  great  churches,  huge, 
dark,  threatening,  a  dreadful  and  forbidding 
face.  The  fixed  and  formal  lines  are  repeated 
and  deepened  by  artist  after  artist.  Every  feat- 
ure of  naturalness  is  obliterated ;  every  feature 
that  seemed  to  express  awfulness  is  exagger- 
ated and  emphasized.  The  wide-set  eyes,  the 
long  narrow  countenance,  the  stern,  inflexible 
mouth,  —  in  this  ocular  definition  the  man 
Christ  Jesus  has  vanished,  and  we  see  only  the 
immense,  immutable,  and  terrible  Pantokrator, 
who  cannot  be  touched  with  the  feeling  of  our 
infirmities.2 

When  we  turn  to  the  intellectual  life  of  the 
Church  out  of  which  this  type  of  art  grew,  we 

1  This  is  the  imago  Christi  which  we  see  in  the  painting 
from  the  Catacomb  of  S.  Ponziano. 

2  This  type  was  shown  in  the  mosaic  in  the  Church  of  St. 
Paul  outside  the  walls,  near  Rome,  lately  destroyed  by  fire. 


The  Human  Life  of  G-od  131 

see  there  the  process  explained.  The  early  Dogmas 
Greek  Fathers,  like  Irenseus,  went  directly  to  view  Oj 
the  Holy  Scriptures  for  their  view  of  the  per-  Christ. 
son  of  Christ,  and  frankly  accepted  all  the 
features  of  the  living,  lovely  portrait  there  dis- 
closed. They  recognized  without  reserve  the 
reality  of  Christ's  human  growth  in  wisdom  and 
stature  and  in  favour  with  God  and  men ;  the 
actual  limitations  of  Christ's  human  knowledge 
as  expressed  in  the  questions  that  He  asked  and 
in  His  profession  of  ignorance  in  regard  to  the 
time  of  His  second  advent ;  the  intimacy  of  His 
sympathy  with  us  in  temptation,  suffering,  and 
death.  But  with  the  development  of  theological 
definition  this  direct  view  of  Christ  was  modified, 
obscured,  and  at  last  totally  eclipsed.  Instead  of 
looking  at  God  through  His  revelation  in  Christ, 
the  Fathers  began  to  look  at  Christ  through  a 
more  and  more  abstract,  precise,  and  inflexible 
statement  of  the  metaphysical  idea  of  God.  It 
became  necessary  to  harmonize  the  Scripture 
record  of  the  life  of  Jesus  with  the  theories  of 
the  divine  nature  set  forth  in  the  decrees  of 
councils  and  defined  with  amazing  particularity 
in  the  writings  of  theologians.  In  the  effort  to 
accomplish  this,  two  main  lines  of  thought  were 
followed.  One  line  abandoned  the  belief  in 


132  The  Human  Life  of  God 

The  hiding     Christ's  real  and  complete  humanity,  and  re- 
of  jesus.        duced  His  human  life  to  a  tenuous  and 


apparition.  The  other  line  distinguished  be- 
tween His  humanity  and  His  Divinity  in  such 
a  way  as  to  divide  Him  into  two  halves,  either 
of  which  appears  virtually  complete  without 
the  other,  and  both  of  which  are  united,  not  in 
a  single  and  sincere  personality,  but  in  an  out- 
ward manifestation  and  a  concealed  life,  cover- 
ing in  some  mysterious  way  a  double  centre  of 
existence.  It  is  only  fair  to  say  that  the  ex- 
treme results  of  these  two  lines  of  thought  were 
condemned  by  the  Church  in  the  heresies  of 
Doketism  and  Apollinarianism,  Eutychianism 
and  Nestorianism.  But  it  is  equally  fair  to  say 
that  the  influence  of  these  theories  was  by  no 
means  checked  nor  extirpated.  They  continued 
to  make  themselves  felt  powerfully  and  perni- 
ciously ;  now  in  the  direction  of  dissolving 
the  humanity  of  Christ  into  a  mere  cloud 
enveloping  His  Deity  ;  and  again  in  the 
direction  of  dividing  and  destroying  the 
unity  of  His  person  in  the  definitions  of  His 
dual  nature. 

It  is  not  necessary,  nor  would  it  be  possible, 
for  us  to  trace  this  process  in  detail  through  all 
its  complexities  and  self-contradictions.  It 
will  be  enough  to  give  two  or  three  specimens 


The  Human  Life  of  God  133 

of  the  kind  of  work  to  which  it  led  in  dealing 
with  two  essential  features  of  the  picture  of 
Christ  which  is  given  to  us  in  the  Gospels :  His 
human  limitation  of  knowledge,  and  His  human 
growth  in  wisdom,  stature,  and  grace.  Both 
limitation  and  growth  are  unexempt  conditions 
of  manhood.  Both  are  unquestionably  attrib- 
uted to  Christ  in  the  New  Testament.  Both 
are  explicitly  denied  by  theologians.  Ephrem 
Syrus,  commenting  upon  the  Diatessaron  of 
Tatian,  says :  "  Christ,  though  He  knew  the 
moment  of  His  advent,  yet  that  they  might  not 
ask  Him  any  more  about  it,  said,  IJcnow  it  not."1 
Chrysostom,  in  his  explanation  of  St.  Matthew 
xxiv.  36,  paraphrases  Christ's  words  in  this 
extraordinary  fashion  :  "  For  if  thou  seek  after 
the  day  and  the  hour  thou  shalt  not  hear  them 
of  me,  saith  He ;  but  if  of  times  and  preludes, 
I  will  tell  thee  all  exactly.  For  that  indeed 
I  am  not  ignorant  of  it,  I  have  shown  by  many 
things.  —  I  lead  thee  to  the  very  vestibule  ; 
and  if  I  do  not  open  unto  thee  the  doors,  this 
also  I  do  for  your  good."2  John  of  Damascus, 
defending  the  orthodox  faith,  declares  that, 

1  Evang.   Concordant.  Expos.   (Aucher  and  Moesinger, 
Venice,  1876),  p.  16. 

2  St.  Chrysostom,  Homilies  on  the  Gospel  of  St.  Matthew, 
Ixxvii.  2.    The  Nicene  Fathers  (New  York,  Christian  Litera- 
ture Co.,  1888),  vol.  x. 


134  The  Human  Life  of  God 

"Christ  is  said  to  advance  in  wisdom  and 
stature  and  grace,  because  He  grows  in  fact  in 
stature,  and  through  His  growth  in  stature 
brings  out  into  exhibition  the  wisdom  which 
already  existed  in  Him.  .  .  .  But  those  who 
say  that  He  really  grew  in  wisdom  and  grace  as 
receiving  increase  in  these,  deny  that  the  flesh 
was  united  to  the  word  from  the  first  moment 
of  its  existence."1  Peter  Lombard  does  not 
explicitly  adopt,  but  quotes  with  evident  ap- 
proval, the  opinion  that  the  person  of  the  eter^ 
nal  Word  put  on  a  human  body  and  soul  as  a 
robe,  in  order  that  He  might  appear  suitably  to 
the  eyes  of  mortals,  yet  in  Himself  He  was  not 
changed  by  this  incarnation,  but  remained  one 
and  the  same,  immutable.2 

A  very  full  and  clear  exhibition  of  the  dark- 
ness and  unreality  in  which  the  patristic  and 
mediaeval  theologians  involved  the  person  of 
Christ  may  be  found  in  Professor  A.  B.  Brace's 
great  book  on  The  Humiliation  of  Christ?  and 
in  Canon  Charles  Gore's  two  admirable  vol- 
umes on  The  Incarnation^  from  which  I  have 

1  John  Damascene,  De  Fide  Orthod.,  Lib.  iii.  chap.  xxii. 

2  Peter  Lombard,  Sentt.,  Book  iii.,  Dist.  vi.  §  6. 

3  Prof.  Alexander  Balmain  Bruce,  The  Humiliation  of 
Christ  (New  York,  Armstrongs,  1887). 

4  Canon  Charles  Gore,  The  Incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God, 
Bampton  Lectures,  1891  (New  York,  Scribners,  1891).    Dis- 


The  Human  Life  of  G-od  135 

taken  some  illustrations  after  verifying  them. 
Professor  Bruce  sums  up  the  matter  by  saying : 
44  The  effect,  though  not  the  design,  of  theories 
of  Christ's  person  has  been  to  a  large  extent  to 
obscure  some  of  these  elementary  truths, — 
the  unity  of  the  person,  or  the  reality  of  the 
humanity,  or  the  divinity  dwelling  within  the 
man,  or  the  voluntariness  and  ethical  value  of 
the  state  of  the  humiliation.  That  is,  certain- 
ties have  been  sacrificed  for  uncertainties,  facts 
for  hypotheses,  faith  for  speculation. " 1 

Canon     Gore,    in    his    Bampton     Lectures,   Theman- 

hood  of 

adroitly  uses  the  Jesuit  theologian  De  Lugo  as  jesus  van- 
a  man  of  straw  through  whom  he  may  safely  ishes" 
and  vigorously  attack  the  false  conceptions  of 
Christ's  person  which  are  still  current,  and  to  a 
considerable  degree  dominant,  in  dogmatic  the- 
ology. He  says  that  De  Lugo  depicts  a  Christ 
44  who,  if  He  was,  as  far  as  His  body  is  con- 
cerned, in  a  condition  of  growth,  was,  as  re- 
gards His  soul  and  intellect,  from  the  first 
moment  and  throughout  His  life  in  full  enjoy- 
ment of  the  beatific  vision.  Externally  a  way- 
farer, a  viator,  inwardly  He  was  throughout 
a  comprehensor,  He  had  already  attained.  .  .  . 
It  is  denied  that  He  can  be  strictly  called 

sertations  on  Subjects  connected  with  the  Incarnation  (New 
York,  Scribners,  1895),  1  The  Humiliation  of  Christ,  p.  192. 


136  The  Human  Life  of  G-od 

'  the  servant  of  God  '  even  as  man,  in  spite  of  the 
direct  use  of  that  expression  in  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles.  He  is  spoken  of  at  the  institution  of 
the  Eucharist  as  offering  sacrifice  to  His  own 
Godhead."1 

Modem  ex-  Canon  Gore  condemns  this  picture  by  De 
false  c/iria-  Lugo  as  in  striking  contradiction  to  that  which 
toiogy.  faQ  New  Testament  presents.  But  the  point 
which  I  wish  to  make  clear  and  distinct,  is  that, 
in  spite  of  this  contradiction,  the  picture  has 
not  been  frankly  and  finally  discarded  in  Chris- 
tian theology.  It  still  exercises  an  obscuring 
and  perverting  influence  upon  the  vision  of 
Christ.  It  still  produces,  by  imitation,  repre- 
sentations of  Him  in  which  definitions  dominate 
facts,  and  formulas  hide  or  obliterate  realities. 
We  do  not  need  to  go  back  to  the  seventeenth 
century,  nor  abroad  to  the  Jesuits,  for  our  ex- 
amples. We  may  turn  to  Archdeacon  Wilber- 
force's  book  on  The  Incarnation,  and  find  him 
representing  the  body  of  Christ  as  miraculous 
in  its  freedom  from  sickness,  its  power  over 
animals,  its  exemption  from  the  necessity  of 
death,  and  its  inherent  power  of  communicat- 
ing life  to  others.2  In  regard  to  the  mind  of 

1  The  Incarnation,  p.  164. 

2  Archdeacon  Wilberforce,  The  Doctrine  of  the  Incarna- 
tion (New  York,  Young,  1885),  pp.  60-65. 


The  Human  Life  of  &<&  137 

Christ,  he  says  that  "  since  it  would  be  impious 
to  suppose  that  our  Lord  had  pretended  an 
ignorance  which  He  did  not  experience,  we 
are  led  to  the  conclusion  [astonishing  conclu- 
sion !]  that  what  He  partook,  as  man,  was 
not  actual  ignorance,  but  such  deficiency  in 
the  means  of  arriving  at  truth  as  belongs  to 
mankind."1  We  may  turn  to  the  Dogmatic 
Theology  of  Dr.  W.  G.  T.  Shedd  and  read: 
44  Jesus  Christ  as  a  theanthropic  person  was  A  double 
constituted  of  a  divine  nature  and  a  human  , 

TiCoo. 

nature.  The  divine  nature  had  its  own  form 
of  experience,  like  the  mind  in  an  ordinary 
human  person  ;  and  the  human  nature  had  its 
own  form  of  experience,  like  the  body  in  a  com- 
mon man.  The  experiences  of  the  divine  nature 
were  as  diverse  from  those  of  the  human  nature 
as  those  of  the  human  mind  are  from  those  of 
the  human  body.  Yet  there  was  but  one  per- 
son who  was  the  subject-ego  of  both  of  these 
experiences.  At  the  very  time  when  Christ 
was  conscious  of  weariness  and  thirst  by  the 
well  of  Samaria,  He  also  was  conscious  that  He 
was  the  eternal  and  only-begotten  Son  of  God, 
the  second  person  in  the  Trinity.  This  is  proved 
by  His  words  to  the  Samaritan  woman :  '  Who- 
soever drinketh  of  the  water  that  I  shall  give 
1  Ibid.,  p.  71. 


138  The  Human  Life  of  God 

him  shall  never  thirst ;  but  the  water  that  I 
shall  give  him  shall  be  in  him  a  well  of  water 
springing  up  into  everlasting  life.  I  that  speak 
unto  thee  am  the  Messiah. '  The  first-mentioned 
consciousness  of  fatigue  and  thirst  came  through 
the  human  nature  in  His  person  ;  the  second- 
mentioned  consciousness  of  omnipotence  and 
supremacy  came  through  the  divine  nature  in 
His  person.  If  He  had  not  had  a  human  nature, 
He  could  not  have  had  the  former  consciousness; 
and  if  He  had  not  had  a  divine  nature,  He  could 
not  have  had  the  latter.  Because  He  had  both 
natures  in  one  person,  He  could  have  both."1 
We  may  turn  to  Canon  Liddon's  magnificent 
work  on  The  Divinity  of  our  Lord  and  find  him 
His  man-  writing  :  "  Christ's  Manhood  is  not  of  Itself  an 
vesture  individual  being ;  It  is  not  a  seat  and  centre  of 
personality  ;  It  has  no  conceivable  existence 
apart  from  the  act  whereby  the  Eternal  Word 
in  becoming  Incarnate  called  It  into  being  and 
made  It  His  Own.  It  is  a  vesture  which  He  has 
folded  around  His  person  ;  It  is  an  instrument 
through  which  He  places  Himself  in  contact  with 
men  and  whereby  He  acts  upon  humanity."2 

1  W.  G.  T.  Shedd,  Dogmatic  Theology  (New  York,  Scrib- 
ners,  1888),  vol.  ii.,  pp.  307,  308. 

2  H.  P.  Liddon,  The  Divinity  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ,  Bampton  Lectures,  1866  (London,  Bivingtons, 
llth  edition,  1885),  p.  262. 


The  Human  Life  of  G-od  *          139 

And  so,  if  we  accept  this  picture  of  Christ,  The  human 
the  manhood  of  Jesus  fades,  retreats,  grows 
dim  and  shadowy.  It  wavers  like  a  veil.  It 
dissolves  like  mist.  It  descends  again  mys- 
terious and  impenetrable,  illusory  and  imper- 
sonal, to  envelop  Him  whom  we  love  and  adore 
in  its  strange  and  unfamiliar  folds.  We  grope 
after  Him,  but  we  can  touch  nothing  but  the 
hem  of  His  mystic  robe.  We  long  for  Him, 
but  He  approaches  us,  and  comes  into  contact 
with  us,  only  through  an  instrument.  He  is 
not  what  He  seems.  The  Son  of  God  behind 
that  veil  is  beyond  our  reach.  The  Son  of 
man,  whom  human  eyes  beheld  and  human 
hands  touched,  is  not  the  real,  living,  veritable 
Saviour,  but  only  the  form,  the  garment,  of  an 
inscrutable  life.  And  if,  in  our  dire  confusion, 
our  reasoning  faith  still  succeeds  in  holding 
fast  to  the  Eternal  Logos,  our  confiding  faith  is 
maimed  and  robbed  by  the  loss  of  that  true, 
near,  personal,  loving,  sj^mpathizing  Jesus,  who 
was  born  of  a  woman,  suffered  under  Pontius 
Pilate,  was  crucified,  dead,  and  buried.  He  is 
gone  from  us,  as  certainly  as  if  the  Pharisees 
had  spoken  truth  when  they  said  that  His  dis- 
ciples came  by  night  and  stole  Him  away.  The 
thing  of  which  we  are  most  in  doubt,  and 
about  which  we  are  least  capable  of  any  positive 


140 


The  Human  Life  of  Grod 


affirmation,  as  Dr.  Bushnell  said,  is  the  human- 
ity of  Christ.  We  are  left  with  a  perfectly 
orthodox  doctrine  of  two  natures,  but  we  no 
longer  have  a  clear  and  simple  gospel  of  One 
Person  to  preach  to  doubting  men. 


The  wor- 
ship of  the 
Virgin 


n 

The  cry  of         But   the   heart   of    Christendom   has    never 

a  human        rested  content  with  this  distant,  vague,  uncer- 

Saviour.        tain  view  of   the  real  manhood  of  our  Lord. 

There   has  always  been  a  protest  against  it. 

There  has  always  been  an  effort  to  escape  from 

it. 

We  can  see  a  strange  and  indirect  but 
indubitable  evidence  of  this  deep  inward  dis- 
satisfaction, in  the  rise  and  growth  of  an  im- 
passioned devotion  to  the  human  mother  of 
Jesus.  The  worship  of  the  Virgin  Mary  was 
a  reprisal  for  the  obscuration  of  the  humanity 
of  her  Son.  In  the  thought  of  her  true 
womanly  tenderness  and  affection,  her  real  and 
unquestionable  sorrows,  her  simple  and  familiar 
joys,  her  intimate,  genuine,  unfailing  sympathy 
with  all  that  makes  our  mortal  life  a  bitter, 
blessed  reality  to  us,  the  souls  of  the  lowly  and 
the  lonely  found  that  peace  and  consolation 


The  Human  Life  of  Gofr  141 

which  they  could  no  longer  find  in  the  con- 
templation of  the  distant  Second  Person  of  the 
Trinity  through  the  telescope  of  theology. 
That  which  Jesus  Himself  was  to  John  and 
Peter,  to  the  household  of  Bethany,  to  the 
penitent  publican,  and  to  the  woman  which 
was  a  sinner,  Mary  became  to  the  baffled  and 
confused  faith  of  a  later  age,  —  an  approachable 
mediator  of  the  divine  mercy,  a  helper  who 
could  really  understand  and  feel  the  need  of 
those  who  cried  for  help,  a  warm  and  living 
image  of  the  Eternal  Sympathy  in  flesh  and 
blood.  In  the  light  of  mediaeval  dogmatics 
Mariolatry  appears  not  without  its  justifica- 
tion. And  for  my  part,  I  should  not  wish  to  be 
bound  to  the  Christology  of  Peter  Lombard 
and  Thomas  Aquinas,  without  finding  the  com- 
pensation which  their  followers  found  in  per- 
sonal devotion  and  confidential  trust,  flowing 
instinctively  and  irresistibly  towards  the  blessed 
Virgin. 

But,  after  all,  this  was  only  a  substitute  for  The  search 
the  real  thing.  It  gave  to  faith  the  image  of 
a  lovely  and  adorable  humanity  in  closest  union 
with  God  ;  but  it  did  not  give  back  the  old 
vision  of  the  human  life  of  God.  And  so 
through  all  the  ages  we  see  men  turning,  now 
in  solitary  thought,  now  in  great  companies,  to 


142  The  Human  Life  of  God 

seek  that  vision.  The  renaissance  of  Christian 
art,  with  its  beautiful  pictures  of  the  infancy  of 
Jesus,  with  its  piercing  and  pathetic  representa- 
tions of  the  sufferings  of  Jesus,  bears  witness 
to  the  eagerness  of  that  search.  The  revivals 
of  Christian  life,  seen  in  such  diverse  yet  cog- 
nate forms  as  the  rise  of  the  "  Poor  Men  of 
Lyons"  and  the  foundation  of  the  "Brother- 
hood of  St.  Francis "  are  evidences  of  the  same 
movement  back  to  Christ.  Peter  Waldo  outside 
of  the  Church,  and  Francis  of  Assisi  within  the 
Church,  were  awakened  by  the  same  vision  of 
Jesus,  "  a  man  of  sorrows  and  acquainted  with 
grief,"  and  were  inspired  by  the  same  desire  to 
make  His  real  human  life  the  pattern  of  all  piety 
The  spirit  and  the  example  of  all  goodness.  The  Refor- 
mation "  mati°n5  which  was  at  once  and  equally  an  intel- 
lectual and  a  spiritual  protest  against  the  arro- 
gance of  current  theology  and  the  coldness  of 
religious  life,  supplies  no  better  watchword  to 
express  its  great  motive  than  the  saying  of 
Erasmus  :  "  I  could  wish  that  those  frigid  subt- 
leties either  were  completely  cut  off,  or  were 
not  the  only  things  that  the  theologians  held  as 
certain,  and  that  the  Christ  pure  and  simple  might 
be  implanted  deep  within  the  minds  of  men."1 

1  Erasmus,  quoted  in  Gore,  Dissertations,  etc.,  p.  180, 
Epistle  207. 


The  Human  Life  of  God  143 

Modern  Biblical  scholarship,  with  its  splendid 
apparatus  of  linguistic  and  historical  learning, 
proceeding  in  part,  at  first,  from  a  sceptical  im- 
pulse, has  developed  in  our  generation,  either 
through  the  conversion  of  sceptics  in  the  process 
of  research,  or  through  the  awakening  of  be- 
lievers to  the  necessities  of  their  faith,  into  a 
reverent  and  eager  quest  for  the  historic  Christ, 
the  Jesus  of  the  Gospels,  the  Lord  of  the  primi- 
tive Church,  that  we  may  see  Him  as  the  first 
Christians  saw  Him,  in  the  integrity  of  His  per- 
son and  the  sincerity  of  His  life,  and  receive  from  "  Back  to 

Christ  I " 

Him  what  they  received, — a  faith  that  dissolved 
doubts  and  an  inspiration  that  conquered  diffi- 
culties. Back  to  the  New  Testament  of  our 
Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  —  back  to  the 
facts  that  lie  behind  the  definitions,  back  to 
the  Person  who  embodies  the  truth,  back  to  the 
record  and  reflection  of  that  which  the  apostles 
"heard,  and  saw  with  their  eyes,  and  looked 
upon,  and  their  hands  handled  of  the  word  of 
life,"  —  this,  and  this  only,  is  the  way  that  leads 
us  within  sight  of 

"  the  heaven-drawn  picture 
Of  Christ,  the  living  Word." 

Now  it  is  a  marvellous  thing,  and  one  for 
which  we  can  never  be  grateful  enough,  that 


144 


The  Human  Life  of  G-od 


The  Bible 
gives  us  a 
Kinsman- 
Redeemer. 


The  Christ 
of  the 
Gospels. 


when  we  come  to  the  New  Testament  in  this 
spirit,  we  find  in  it  exactly  what  we  need  ;  not  an 
abstract  formula,  not  a  collection  of  definitions, 
but  the  graphic  reflection  of  a  Person  seen 
from  a  fourfold  point  of  view,  and  the  simple 
record  of  manifold  human  experience  under  the 
direct  and  dominant  influence  of  that  Person. 
And  the  one  fact  that  emerges  clear  and  tri- 
umphant from  the  reflection  and  the  record,  is 
that  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament  never 
were  in  doubt  of  the  human  nature  of  Christ 
and  never  hesitated  to  make  the  most  positive 
affirmations  in  regard  to  it. 

The  Christ  of  the  Gospels  is  bone  of  our 
bone,  flesh  of  our  flesh,  mind  of  our  mind, 
heart  of  our  heart.  He  is  in  subjection  to 
His  parents  as  a  child.  He  grows  to  man- 
hood. His  character  is  unfolded  and  perfected 
by  discipline.  He  labours  for  daily  bread,  and 
prays  for  Divine  grace.  He  hungers,  and 
thirsts,  and  sleeps,  and  rejoices,  and  weeps. 
He  is  anointed  with  the  Spirit  for  His  minis- 
try. He  is  tempted.  He  is  lonely  and  dis- 
appointed. He  asks  for  information.  He 
confesses  ignorance.  He  interprets  the  facts 
of  nature  and  life  with  a  prophetic  insight. 
But  He  makes  no  new  disclosure  of  the  secrets 
of  omniscience.  There  is  no  hint  nor  indica- 


The  Human  Life  of  G-od  145 

tion  that  He  is  leading  a  double  life,  reigning 
consciously  as  God  while  He  is  suffering  appar- 
ently as  man.  His  personality  is  simple  and 
indivisible.  The  glory  of  what  He  is  and  does, 
lies  not  only  in  its  perfection,  but  in  the  hard 
conditions  of  its  accomplishment.  Superhuman 
in  His  origin,  as  the  only -begotten  Son  of  God ; 
superhuman  in  His  office  and  work,  as  the  re- 
vealer  of  the  Father  and  the  redeemer  of  man- 
kind ;  in  His  earthly  existence  tjie  Christ  of  the 
Gospels  enters  without  reserve  and  without  de- 
ception into  all  the  conditions  and  limitations 
which  are  necessary  to  give  to  the  world,  once 
and  forever,  the  human  life  of  God. 

When  we  turn  to  the  Epistles  to  see  how  The  Christ 
this  view  of  Christ  was  affected  by  the  recog-  Epistles. 
nition  of  His  divine  glory  and  power  as  one 
who  had  been  raised  to  the  right  hand  of  God 
and  made  head  over  all  things  to  the  Church, 
two  things  strike  us  with  tremendous  force. 
First,  the  identity  of  His  person  was  not  lost, 
nor  the  continuity  of  His  being  broken:  the 
exalted  Christ  is  none  other  than  "this  same 
Jesus."  1  Second,  the  reality  and  absoluteness 
of  His  humiliation  are  emphasized  as  the  ground 
and  cause  of  His  exaltation. 

How  vividly  these  two  things  come  out,  for 
i  Acts  i.  11. 


146  The  Human  Life  of  God 

St.  Paul's  example,  in  the  writings  of  St.  Paul.  It  has 
been  well  said  that  "  the  Christ  whom  Paul  had 
seen  was  the  risen  Christ,  and  the  conception 
of  Him  in  His  glorified  character  is  the  one 
which  rules  his  thoughts  and  forms  the  start- 
ing-point of  his  teaching."  l  Corresponding  to 
this  present  glory,  Paul  assumes  an  eternally 
pre-existent  glory  of  Christ  as  the  image  of 
the  invisible  God,  the  medium  and  end  of  crea- 
tion.2 Now  it  is  of  this  Person,  divinely  glori- 
ous in  the  past  as  the  One  who  is  before  all 
things  and  in  whom  all  things  consist,3  divinely 
glorious  in  the  present  as  the  One  who  is  far 
above  every  name  that  is  named,  not  only  in 
this  world  but  in  that  which  is  to  come,4  — 
it  is  of  this  Person  that  Paul  writes,  in  words 
so  strong  that  they  touch  the  very  border  of 
the  impossible :  "  For  our  sakes,  He  beggared 
Himself  that  we  through  His  beggary  might 
be  enriched."6  And  again:  "He,  existing  in 
the  form  of  God,  did  not  consider  an  equal 
state  with  God  a  thing  to  be  selfishly  grasped 
and  held,  but  emptied  Himself,  and  took  the 
form  of  a  slave,  being  made  in  the  likeness  of 
man."6  These  powerful  expressions,  "self- 

1  Stevens,  The  Pauline  Theology,  p.  206. 

2  Col.  i.  16.        8  Col.  i.  17.       *  Eph.  i.  21. 
6  2  Cor.  viii.  9.  «  Phil.  ii.  6,  7. 


The  Human  Life  of  G-od  147 

beggary,"  "self -empty ing,"  seem  to  be  directly 
designed  to  break  up  the  conventional  moulds 
in  which  dogmatic  theology  has  attempted  to 
cast  the  truth  and  let  it  harden.  They  bring 
back  a  vital  warmth  and  motion  into  the  facts 
of  the  Incarnation.  Once  more  it  glows  and 
Hows.  Once  more  we  see  that  it  is  not  a  mere 
exhibition  of  being  but  a  process  of  becoming. 
The  idea  of  self-beggary  mightily  overflows 
the  mere  statement  that  a  human  nature  was 
added  and  united  to  the  divine  nature;  for 
that  would  have  been  no  impoverishment  but 
an  enrichment.  The  idea  of  self -empty  ing  The 
shatters  the  narrow  dogma  that  the  Son  of 
God  suffered  no  change  in  Himself  when  He 
became  man.  It  was  a  change  so  absolute,  so 
immense,  that  it  can  only  be  compared  with 
the  vicissitude  from  fulness  to  emptiness.  He 
laid  aside  the  existence-form  of  God,  in  order 
that  He  might  take  the  existence-form  of  man. 
Whatever  right  He  had  to  an  equal  state  of 
glory  with  God,  that  right  He  did  not  cling 
to,  but  surrendered,  in  order  that  He  might 
become  a  servant.  And  upon  this  real  self- 
emptying  there  followed  a  real  self-humilia- 
tion, wherein,  being  found  in  fashion  as  a  man, 
He  became  obedient  unto  death,  even  the  death 


148  The  Human  Life  of 

of  the    cross.1     It  was  on  account   of  this,  — - 
and  by  "  this  "  we  must  understand  the  entire 
actual  operation  of  the  self-denying,  self-hum- 
,  bling,  self -sacrificing  mind  of  Christ,  —  it  was 

for  this  reason,  St.  Paul  declares,  that  "  God 
highly  exalted  Him,  and  gave  unto  Him  the 
name  which  is  above  every  name."2  And  I 
know  not  how  to  interpret  such  language 
with  any  reality  of  intelligence,  unless  it 
means  that  the  present  glory  of  the  Son  of 
God  is  in  some  true  sense  the  result  of  His 
having  become  man  and  so  fulfilled  the  will 
of  God. 
The  Epistu  This  view,  which  St.  Paul  condenses  into  a 

of  Christ's  ,          /,         ...  -I     -I    • 

brotherhood,  single  pregnant  "wherefore,  is  expanded  in 
the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews.  The  object  of 
this  Epistle  is  to  show  the  superiority  of  the 
priesthood  and  sacrifice  of  Christ,  which  are 
substantial  and  enduring,  to  the  priesthood  and 
sacrifice  of  the  old  dispensation,  which  were 
shadowy  and  transient.  But  the  method  which 
the  writer  follows  is  not  to  deny,  but  to  assert 
the  verity  of  Christ's  humanity,  Without  this 
He  could  not  be  the  true  priest  nor  offer  the 
true  sacrifice.  "In  all  things  it  behoved  Him 
to  be  made  like  unto  His  brethren."3  "  For  we 
have  not  an  high  priest  which  cannot  be  touched 
i  Phil.  ii.  8.  2  phn.  ii.  9.  a  Hebf  ii.  17, 


The  Human  Life  of  aod  149 

with  the  feeling  of  our  infirmities  :  but  was  in 
all  points  tempted  like  as  we  are,  yet  without 
sin." 1  "  Though  He  were  a  Son,  yet  learned 
He  obedience  by  the  things  which  He  suffered, 
and  being  made  perfect,  He  became  the  author 
of  eternal  salvation  unto  all  them  that  obey 
Him."2  This  complete  incarnation,  this  thor-  The  glory 
ough  trial  under  human  conditions,  this  perfect  ° 
discipline  of  obedience  through  suffering,  was  a 
humiliation.  But  it  was  in  no  sense  a  degrada- 
tion. On  the  contrary,  it  was  a  crowning  of 
Christ  with  glory  and  honour  in  order  that  He 
might  taste  death  for  every  man.  "For  it  be- 
came Him,  for  whom  are  all  things,  and  by 
whom  are  all  things,  in  bringing  many  sons  to 
glory,  to  make  the  captain  of  their  salvation 
perfect  through  suffering."3  If  the  Epistle  to 
the  Hebrews  teaches  anything,  it  certainly 
teaches  this.  The  humanity  of  Jesus  was  not 
the  veiling  but  the  unveiling  of  the  divine 
glory.  The  limitations,  temptations,  and  suffer- 
ings of  manhood  were  the  conditions  under 
which  alone  Christ  could  accomplish  the  great- 
est work  of  the  Deity,  —  the  redemption  of  a 
sinful  race.  The  seat  of  the  divine  revelation 
and  the  centre  of  the  divine  atonement  was  and 
is  the  human  life  of  God. 

i  Heb,  iv.  15.  2  Heb.  y.  8,  9,  «  Heb.  ii.  9,  10. 


150 


The  Human  Life  of  Grod 


A  summary 
of  conclu- 
sions. 


Current 
theology 
at  fault. 


Human 
theories 
not  to  be 
insisted 
upon. 


m 

Here,  then,  we  may  pause  for  a  moment  and 
try  to  sum  up  the  conclusions  to  which  the  New 
Testament  leads  us  in  regard  to  the  person  of 
Christ. 

I  am  sincerely  anxious  not  to  be  misunder- 
stood. On  the  one  hand,  I  would  not  conceal 
for  a  moment  my  conviction  that  current  theol- 
ogy has  failed,  very  often  and  very  largely,  to 
do  justice  to  the  meaning  of  the  Incarnation  on 
the  human  side,  and  that  we  must  go  back  to 
the  image  of  Jesus  Christ  as  it  is  reflected  in  the 
Gospels  to  purify,  and  refresh,  and  simplify 
our  faith.  We  should  not  suffer  any  reverence 
for  ancient  definitions  of  doctrine,  however  well 
founded,  nor  any  fear  of  incurring  reproach  and 
mistrust  as  innovators,  to  deter  us  from  that 
necessary  and  loyal  return  to  the  reality  of  the 
Person  in  whom  our  creed  centres  and  on  whom 
it  rests.  To  find  Jesus  anew,  to  see  Him  again, 
as  if  for  the  first  time,  in  the  wondrous  glory 
of  His  humility,  is  the  secret  of  the  revival  of 
Christianity  in  every  age.  This  is  not  innova- 
tion ;  it  is  renovation. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  have  no  right  and  we 
ought  to  have  no  inclination  to  insist  exclusively 
upon  any  particular  theory  as  the  only  possible 


The  Human  Life  of  God.  151 

explanation  of  the  facts  of  the  Incarnation. 
Every  earnest  and  thoughtful  man  must  feel 
that  these  facts  are  so  deep  and  mysterious  that 
the  plummet  of  human  reason  cannot  sound 
their  ultimate  recesses.  With  all  our  thinking 
upon  this  subject,  there  must  ever  mingle  a  con- 
sciousness of  insufficiency  and  a  confession  of 
ignorance.  But  with  this  confession  of  igno- 
rance there  must  go  also  a  clear  recognition  of 
those  portions  of  the  truth  which  are  unques- 
tionably revealed  in  the  New  Testament.  Three 
things  are  there  made  plain  to  faith. 

1.  God  is  so  closely  related  to  man,  and  the  T^ree  vital 
likeness  of  God  in  man  is  so  real,  that  the  Di-  p 

vine  Logos  is  able  to  descend  by  a  free  act  of 
self -deter  mining  love  into  the  lower  estate  of 
human  existence,  and  humble  Himself  to  the 
conditions  of  manhood  without  losing  His  per- 
sonal identity. 

2.  The  essence  of  the  Gospel  is  its  declara- 
tion of  the  fact  that  this  act  of  condescension, 
of  self-humiliation,  actually  has  been  performed, 
and  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  eternal  Son  of  God 
who  has  taken  upon  Him  the  existence-form  of 
a  servant,  and  lived  a  truly  human  life,  and 
been  obedient  even  unto  death,  in  order  to  re- 
veal to  the  world  the  saving  love  of  God. 


152  The  Human  Life  of  God 

3.  The  distinctive  attributes  of  personality 
in  Christ  (self-consciousness  and  self-deter- 
mination) are  not  dual,  as  of  two  persons, 
the  one  divine  and  the  other  human,  co-exist- 
ing side  by  side  in  a  double  life,  but  individual, 
and  manifested  as  the  life  of  one  person.  That 
person  is  the  Son  of  God,  who  laid  aside  the 
glory  which  He  had  with  the  Father,  and  emp- 
tied Himself,  and  so  became  the  Son  of  man ; 
and  on  account  of  this  humiliation  God  hath 
highly  exalted  Him  and  crowned  Him  with 
glory  and  honour  as  the  God-man  forever. 
These  points  These  are  the  points  which  are  vital  to  the 
Defended  reality  of  the  Gospel  of  the  Incarnation.  All 
theories  which  make  these  points  clear,  safe- 
guard the  truth  in  its  integrity  and  in  its  rec- 
onciling power.  The  question  of  the  method 
of  the  divine  humiliation  and  the  human  exal- 
tation of  Christ,  lies  beyond  these  points.  It 
is  not  necessary  to  insist  upon  any  particular 
form  of  its  solution.  Indeed,  it  may  well  be 
that  the  profundity  of  the  question,  the  inher- 
ent mystery  of  the  facts  of  life  and  personality 
with  which  it  deals,  and  the  limitations  of 
human  thought  and  language,  preclude  the 
possibility  of  a  complete  and  final  answer  at 
present.  It  must  be  frankly  acknowledged 
that  none  of  the  solutions  which  have  been  pro- 


The  Human  Life  of  God  153 

pounded  hitherto  are  free  from  serious  perplex- 
ities. But  it  must  be  recognized  with  equal 
frankness  that  the  theories  which  have  been 
put  forward  in  modern  times,  with  new  earnest- 
ness and  power,  by  men  of  unquestionable  loy- 
alty to  the  Christianity  of  the  New  Testament, 
who  have  sought  to  find  a  clear  and  positive 
meaning  for  the  great  word  Kenosis,  which 
St.  Paul  uses  to  describe  the  self-emptying  of 
Christ  in  the  Incarnation,  —  theories  which 
have  been  stigmatized  as  kenotic,  as  if  the  name 
were  enough  to  mark  them  as  unorthodox, — 
are  so  far  from  being  heretical  that  they  have 
the  rare  merit  of  conserving  and  emphasizing  a 
truth  of  surpassing  value,  undoubtedly  taught 
in  the  Bible,  and  too  much  neglected,  if  not 
practically  denied,  during  many  centuries  of 
theological  speculation.  It  may  be,  as  Julius 
Miiller  held,  that  the  distinctive  attributes  of 
personality  are,  abstractly  considered,  identical  safe-guard- 
in  God  and  man,  so  that,  by  the  divine  self- 
limitation  in  the  Incarnation,  they  are  actually 
unified,  like  two  circles  which  have  a  common 
centre.1  It  may  be,  as  Dr.  Fairbairn  holds, 
that  the  Son  of  God,  being  the  eternal  repre- 

1  For  this  statement  of  Mutter's  view,  which  he  gave  in 
his  lectures,  I  am  indebted  to  Dr.  George  P.  Fisher,  who  was 
one  of  his  hearers. 


154  The  Human  Life  of  Q-od 

sentative  of  the  filial  relationship  within  the 
Godhead,  the  symbol  of  the  created  within  the 
uncreated,  needed  but  to  surrender  the  form 
and  status  of  the  uncreated  Son  in  order  to 
assume,  by  the  same  act,  the  form  and  status 
which  man  as  the  created  Son  was  intended  to 
realize.1  It  may  be,  as  Godet  holds,  that  the 
Incarnation  was  by  deprivation,  and  that  the 
Eternal  Word  renounced  His  divine  mode  of 
being,  and  entered  into  life,  without  omnisci- 
ence, omnipresence,  or  omnipotence,  as  an  un- 
conscious babe.2  It  matters  little  in  what  form 
of  words  we  try  to  express  the  transcendent 
truth.  But  it  matters  much,  it  is  supremely 
important  for  the  integrity  of  our  Gospel  and 
for  its  influence  upon  the  heart  of  this  doubting 
age,  that  we  should  hold  fast  to  the  fact  that 
the  life  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  is  simply  and 
sincerely  the  human  life  of  God. 

The  new  The  time  is  at  hand  when  this  simple   and 

C%ns^  profound  view  of  Christ,  which  beholds  in  Him 
the  God-man  in  whom  Deity  is  self-limited 
and  humbled  in  order  that  humanity  may  be 
divinely  exalted  and  perfected,  must  break 
through  the  clouds  which  have  obscured  it,  and 
become  the  leading  light  of  religion  and  theol- 

1  The  Place  of  Christ  in  Modern  Theology,  p.  476. 
*  Godet,  Commentary  on  John  i.  14. 


The  Human  Life  of  God  155 

ogy.  The  life  of  Christ  needs  to  be  restudied 
and  rewritten  under  this  luminous  guidance,  in 
absolute  and  unhesitating  loyalty  to  the  facts 
as  they  lie  before  our  eyes  in  the  Gospels.1  The 
doctrine  of  Christ's  person  needs  to  be  recon- 
structed and  restated  in  this  light.  It  must 
include,  as  the  creed  of  Chalcedon  included, 
not  only  the  truth  of  a  Homoousia  — a  sameness 
of  nature  and  experience  —  with  God,  which 
the  past  has  vindicated  ;  but  also  the  equal 
truth  of  a  Homoousia  with  man,  which  the  fut- 
ure is  to  unfold  as  the  universality  of  Christ's 
manhood  is  exhibited  through  His  progressive 
triumphs  among  all  the  races  of  men  and  all 
the  modes  of  human  life.  The  humanity  of  the 
incarnate  Christ  must  stand  out  as  clear,  as  pos- 

1  "No  action  of  our  Saviour's  earthly  life,  from  Bethlehem 
to  Calvary,  exhibits  divinity.  He  appears  first  as  a  helpless 
babe  in  the  manger.  He  is  subject  to  His  parents.  As  the 
child  grows,  He  waxes  strong  in  spirit  and  increases  in  wis- 
dom. Such  an  increase  in  wisdom  implies  increase  in  know- 
ledge, and  less  knowledge  or  greater  ignorance  to-day  than 
to-morrow.  Omniscience  could  not  have  been  exercised  by 
the  Jesus  who  was  growing  in  wisdom.  If  any  say  here,  as 
we  usually  do,  that  the  humanity  grew  but  the  divinity  was 
omniscient,  let  us  ask  if  there  were  two  persons  in  Jesus. 
This  Nestorianism  is  practically  the  creed  of  the  present  day 
with  the  Reformed  Churches.  They  have  gone  over  to  a 
virtual  duplication  of  the  person  of  Christ."  —  HOWARD 
CROSBY,  The  True  Humanity  of  Christ  (New  York,  Ran- 
dolph, 1880). 


156 


The  Human  Life  of  Grod 


itive,  as  indubitable,  as  His  Deity.  Nay,  more, 
it  must  stand  where  the  New  Testament  puts 
it,  in  the  foreground  of  faith.  For  it  is  only  in 
this  humanity  that  we  can  truly  find  the  Son  of 
God  who  loved  us  and  gave  Himself  for  us. 
The  old  How  urgent  and  pressing  are  the  needs  of 

definitions  * 

inadequate.  °ur  °wn  age  which  call  us  to  this  work!  How 
far  behind  us,  how  effete  and  inadequate,  are 
the  terms  and  illustrations  which  were  used  in 
former  ages  to  express  the  results  of  human 
thought  in  regard  to  the  person  of  Christ ! 
Recall,  for  instance,  that  fine  similitude  of  the 
heated  sword  which  the  Lutheran  theologians 
borrowed  from  the  Fathers  to  explain  the 
union  of  the  divine  with  the  human  in  Christ! 
To  them  it  was  satisfactory  because  they  re- 
garded heat  as  one  substance  and  iron  as 
another  substance.  In  their  view  the  divine 
nature  penetrated  and  pervaded  the  human 
nature  as  the  caloric  fluid  was  supposed  to  per- 
meate a  mass  of  metal.  But  in  our  world  the 
caloric  fluid  does  not  exist.  Heat  is  not  a  sub- 
stance, but  a  mode  of  motion  in  substances. 
In  the  light  of  modern  science  the  old  simili- 
tude fades  into  a  meaningless  comparison  of 
things  which  cannot  be  compared. 

We  cannot  accept  the  scholastic  terminology 
of  "natures"  and  "subsistences"  in  the  fina] 


The  Human  Life  of  God  157 

and  absolute  sense  in  which  it  was  once  em- 
ployed. The  philosophy  of  realism,  which 
ascribed  an  objective  existence  to  universals 
apart  from  individuals,  is  not  the  philosophy  of 
to-day.  Its  language  is  not  only  foreign,  but 
dead.  The  philosophy  of  being  and  not-being 
has  opened  to  receive  the  philosophy  of  becom- 
ing ;  and,  in  so  doing,  it  has  been  utterly  trans- 
formed. 

Life  is  now  the  regnant  idea ;  personality  its  Life  is  the 
utmost  expression.     It  is   in  the  facts  of  life,  ™a™r( 
its  secret  potencies,  its  mysterious  limitations 
in  germ  and  seed,  its  magnificent  unfoldings  in 
the  process  of  development  that  we  must  seek 
our  comparisons  for  the  Incarnation.     And  the 
very  search  will  bring  us  face  to  face  with  the 
conviction   that  life   in   all   its   manifestations 
transcends  analysis  without  ceasing  to  be  the 
object  of  knowledge. 

In  the  living  world  the  boundaries  of  imagi-   We  know 

>- — "5?!  ,       ,       T     •          /«   Iife  but  can- 

nation  are  not  coterminous  with  the  limits  01  not  define  it. 

apprehension.  We  know  many  facts  and 
forms  of  life  whose  modes  of  becoming  we 
cannot  imagine.  It  is  just  as  impossible  for 
us  to  conceive  how  the  life  of  the  oak,  root  and 
trunk  and  branch  and  leaf,  form  and  colour 
and  massive  strength,  is  all  folded  in  the  tiny, 
colourless,  unshaped  seed,  as  it  is  to  conceive 


158  The  Human  Life  of  God 

how  the  life  of  God  is  embodied  in  the  man 
Christ  Jesus.  But  the  difficulty  of  conceiving 
the  manner  of  this  infolding,  this  embodiment, 
does  not  destroy  for  us  the  reality  of  the  life. 
Indeed,  if  we  could  explain  it  entirely,  if  we 
could  trace  it  perfectly  as  in  a  diagram,  if  we 
could  observe  it  completely,  as  in  one  of  those 
beautiful  models  of  flowers  which  a  skilful 
artist1  has  recently  made  to  illustrate  his  lect- 
ures on  botany,  we  should  know  that  it  was  not 
life,  but  only  a  picture  of  it.  The  picture  is 
useful,  but  it  is  not  vital.  The  metaphor  has 
its  value,  but  it  falls  far  short  of  the  truth. 
Self-beggary  and  self-emptying  are  but  "words 
thrown  out  towards  "  an  unimaginable  but  not 
unreasonable  manifestation  of  the  Divine  Love 
as  life.  The  reality  to  which  they  point  us  is 
the  Son  of  God  descending  to  live  under  all 
the  conditions  and  limitations  of  energy  and 
consciousness  which  are  proper  to  the  Son  of 
man  :  the  Word  made  flesh  and  dwelling  among 
us,  like  unto  His  brethren  in  all  things. 

IV 

The  import-       ft  WOuld  be  hard  to  overestimate  the  signifi- 

ance  of  this  " 

view  for  the    cance  of  this  view  for  the  present  age,  and  the 
present  age.    importance  of  setting  it  forth  as  a  living  truth 
1  William  Hamilton  Gibson. 


The  Human  Life  of  Q-od A  159 

in  the  language  of  to-day.  It  is  the  only  view 
which  gives  us  any  ground  of  reality  for  our 
faith  in  the  kinship  of  man  with  God.  If  the 
Son  of  God,  who  is  the  image  of  the  Father,  by 
laying  aside  the  outward  prerogatives  of  His 
divine  mode  of  existence,  actually  becomes 
human,  then,  and  only  then,  the  divine  image 
in  which  man  was  created  is  no  mere  figure  of 
speech,  but  a  substantial  likeness  of  spiritual 
being.  There  is  a  true  fellowship  between 
our  souls  and  our  Father  in  heaven.  Virtue 
is  not  a  vain  dream,  but  a  definite  striving 
towards  His  perfection.  Revelation  is  not  a 
deception,  but  a  message  from  Him  who  knows 
all  to  those  who  know  only  a  part.  Prayer  is 
not  an  empty  form,  but  a  real  communion. 

"  Speak  to  Him,  thou,  for  He  hears,  and  Spirit  with  Spirit 

can  meet : 

Closer  is  He  than  breathing,  and  nearer  than  hands 
and  feet."1 

This  view  of  the  spiritual  relation  of  man  to  The  kinship 
God  cannot  possibly  have  any  foundation  in 
fact,  deep  enough  and  strong  enough  to  with- 
stand the  sweeping  floods  of  scepticism,  unless 
it  builds  upon  the  rock  of  a  veritable  Incarna- 
tion. The  discoveries  of  modern  science,  en- 
larging enormously  our  conceptions  of  the 
1  Tennyson,  The  Higher  Pantheism. 


160  The  Human  Life  of  Groct 

physical  universe,  have  not  only  put  man  (as 
we  said  in  the  first  lecture)  in  a  position  to 
receive  a  larger  and  loftier  vision  of  the  glory 
of  God,  but  they  have  made  such  a  vision  in- 
dispensable. And  they  have  emphasized,  with 
overwhelming  force,  the  form  in  which  that 
vision  must  come  in  order  to  meet  our  needs 
and  strengthen  faith  for  its  immense  task.  If 
we  are  not  to  be  utterly  belittled  and  crushed 
by  the  contemplation  of  the  vast  mass  of  matter 
and  the  tremendous  play  of  force  by  which  we 
are  surrounded ;  if  we  are  still  to  hold  that  the 
vital  is  greater  than  the  mechanical,  the  moral 
than  the  material,  the  spiritual  than  the  physi- 
cal; if  we  are  to  maintain  the  old  position  of 
all  noble  and  self -revering  thought,  that  "  man 
is  greater  than  the  universe,"  —  there  is  nothing 
that  can  so  profoundly  confirm  and  establish 
us,  there  is  nothing  that  can  so  surely  protect 
and  save  us  from  "the  distorting  influences  of 
our  own  discoveries,"  as  the  revelation  of  the 
Supreme  Being  in  an  unmistakably  vital,  moral, 
spiritual,  and  human  form. 

The  true  Such  a  revelation  at  once   rectifies,  purifies, 

and  elevates  our  view  of  God  Himself.  For  if 
the  Son  of  God  can  surrender  omnipresence, 
omniscience,  and  omnipotence  without  destroy- 
ing His  personal  identity,  then  the  central 


The  Human  Life  of  G-od  161 

.  •* 

essence  of  the  Deity  is  neither  infinite  wisdom 
nor  infinite  power,  but  perfect  holiness  and 
perfect  goodness.  And  so  from  the  very 
lowest  valley  of  humiliation  we  catch  clear 
sight  of  the  very  loftiest  summit  of  theology, 
the  serene  and  shining  truth  that  God  is  Love. 

In  the  light  of  this  truth  we  behold  also  the  The  supreme 
highest  perfection  of  man  and  the  path  which  ™ 
leads  to  it.  Love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law, 
and  the  supreme  pattern  of  love  is  the  example 
of  Christ.  And  whether  we  look  at  it  from 
the  divine  side  as  the  supreme  self-sacrifice  of 
God,  or  from  the  human  side  as  the  complete 
obedience  of  man,  everything  depends  upon  the 
genuineness  and  sincerity  of  this  example.  Un- 
less the  Son  of  God  truly  became  man,  the  In- 
carnation cannot  be,  as  Bishop  Westcott  calls 
it,  "a  revelation  of  human  duties."  What 
strength  could  we  draw  from  His  victory  over 
temptation  if  He  was  not  exposed  as  we  are 
to  the  assaults  of  evil  ?  What  consolation 
could  we  draw  from  His  patience  if  He  was 
not  a  man  of  sorrows  and  acquainted  with 
grief  ?  "  Jesus  Christ,"  says  one  of  the  greatest 
of  French  theologians,  "  is  not  the  Son  of  God 
hidden  in  the  Son  of  man  retaining  all  the 
attributes  of  Divinity  in  a  latent  state.  This 


162  The  Human  Life  of  God 

would  be  to  admit  an  irreducible  duality  which 
would  make  the  unity  of  His  person  vanish 
and  withdraw  Him  from  the  normal  conditions 
of  human  life.  His  obedience  would  become 
illusory,  and  His  example  would  be  without 
application  to  our  race.  No,  when  the  Word 
became  flesh,  He  humbled  Himself,  He  put  off 
His  glory,  being  rich  He  made  Himself  poor, 
and  became  as  one  of  us,  only  without  sin,  that 
He  might  pass  through  the  moral  conflict  with 
all  the  risks  of  freedom."1  When  we  see  Him 
thus,  we  know  what  it  means  to  follow  Him 
and  to  be  like  Him. 
The  value  of  Finally,  the  whole  value  of  the  Atonement, 

the  atone-        .      .  . 

ment.  in  its  reconciling  influence  on  the  heart  of  man, 

in  its  exhibition  of  the  heart  of  God,  depends 
upon  the  actuality  of  the  Incarnation.  If  He 
who  died  on  Calvary  was  a  mere  theophany, 
like  the  angel  of  Jehovah  who  appeared  to 
Abraham,  then  His  death  was  merely  a  dra- 
matic spectacle.  The  body  of  Jesus  was  broken, 

God  suffers  but  God  was  not  touched.  But  if  the  Father 
n  °r  truly  spared  not  His  own  Son,  but  delivered 
Him  up  for  us  all,  then  the  Father  also  suf- 
fered by  sympathy,  making  an  invisible  sacri- 
fice, an  infinite  surrender  of  love  for  our  sakes. 

1  De  Pressens^,  Jesus- Christ  (Paris,  1865),  Book  I.,  chap, 
v.,  p.  264. 


The  Human  Life  of  God  163 

Then  the  Son  also  suffered,  making  a  visible 
sacrifice,  and  pouring  out  His  soul  unto  death 
to  redeem  us  from  the  fear  of  death  and  the 
power  of  sin.  And  this  becomes  real  to  our 
faith  and  potent  upon  our  souls  only  when  we 
see  the  human  life  of  God,  agonizing  in  the 
garden,  tortured  in  the  judgment-hall,  and  ex- 
piring upon  the  cross.  Then  we  can  say 

"  Oh  Love  Divine !  that  stooped  to  share 
Our  sharpest  pang,  our  bitterest  tear." 

Then  we  can  look  up  to  a  God  who  is  not  im- 
passible, as  the  speculations  of  men  have  falsely 
represented  Him,  but  passible,  and  therefore 
full  of  infinite  capacities  of  pure  sorrow  and 
saving  sympathy.  Then  the  dumb  and  sullen 
resentment  which  rises  in  noble  minds  at  the 
thought  of  a  Universe  in  which  there  is  so 
much  helpless  pain  and  hopeless  grief,  created  thought  of 
by  an  immovable  Being  who  has  never  felt 
and  can  never  feel  either  pain  or  grief,  —  that 
sense  of  moral  repulsion  from  the  idea  of  an 
unsuffering  and  unsympathetic  Creator  which 
is,  and  always  has  been,  the  deepest,  darkest 
spring  of  doubt,  fades  away,  and  we  behold  a 
God  who  became  human  in  order  that  He 
might  bear,  though  innocent  and  undeserving, 
all  our  pains  and  all  our  griefs. 


164  The  Human  Life  of  Grod 

Thus  the  men  who  Believe  in  tne  human  life 
human  of  God  can  stand  before  the  doubting  age,  as 
David  stood  before  the  disillusioned,  downcast, 
despondent  Hebrew  king,  in  Robert  Browning's 
splendid  poem  of  "  Saul."  The  word,  sought  in 
vain  among  the  glories  of  nature,  among  the 
joys  of  human  intercourse,  the  word  of  faith 
and  hope  and  love  and  life,  comes  to  us,  leaps 
upon  us,  flashes  through  us. 


"See  the  King  —  I  would  help  him,  but  cannot,  the 
wishes  fall  through. 

Could  I  wrestle  to  raise  him  from  sorrow,  grow  poor 
to  enrich, 

To  fill  up  his  life,  starve  my  own  out,  I  would  —  know- 
ing which, 

I  know  that  my  service  is  perfect.  Oh,  speak  through 
me  now ! 

Would  I  suffer  for  him  that  I  love?  So  wouldst 
Thou  — so  wilt  Thou! 

So  shall  crown  Thee  the  topmost,  ineffablest,  uttermost 
crown  — 

And  Thy  love  fill  infinitude  wholly,  nor  leave  up  nor 
down 

One  spot  for  the  creature  to  stand  in!  It  is  by  no 
breath, 

Turn  of  eye,  wave  of  hand,  that  salvation  joins  issue 
with  death ! 

As  Thy  Love  is  discovered  almighty,  almighty  be 
proved 

Thy  power,  that  exists  with  and  for  it,  of  being  be- 
loved ! 

He  who  did  most,  shall  bear  most;  the  strongest  shall 
stand  the  most  weak. 


The  Human  Life  of  Grod  165 

"Tis  the  weakness  in  strength,  that  I  cry  for !  my  flesh, 

that  I  seek 
In  the   Godhead!     I  seek  and  I  find  it.     O   Saul,  it 

shall  be 
A  Face  like  my  face  that  receives  thee;   a  Man  like 

to  me, 
Thou  shalt  love  and  be   loved   by,  forever;    a  Hand 

like  this  hand 
Shall  throw  open  the   gates  of    new   life    to   thee! 

See  the  Christ  stand!" 


THE  SOURCE  OF  AUTHORITY  IN 
THE  KINGDOM  OF  HEAVEN 


But  Thee,  but  Thee,  O  sovereign  Seer  of  time, 

But  Thee,  O  poets'  Poet,  Wisdom's  Tongue, 

But  Thee,  O  man's  best  Man,  O  love's  best  Love, 

O  perfect  life  in  perfect  labour  writ, 

O  all  men's  Comrade,  Servant,  King,  or  Priest,  — 

What  if  or  yet,  what  mole,  what  flaw,  what  lapse, 

What  least  defect  or  shadow  of  defect, 

What  rumour,  tattled  by  an  enemy, 

Of  inference  loose,  what  lack  of  grace 

Even  in  torture's  grasp,  or  sleep's,  or  death's, — 

Oh,  what  amiss  may  I  forgive  in  Thee, 

Jesus,  good  Paragon,  thou  Crystal  Christ?" 

—  SIDNEY  LANIER,  The  Crystal. 


THE   SOURCE    OF   AUTHORITY    IN 
THE   KINGDOM   OF   HEAVEN 

PREACH  CHRIST,  is  the  apostolic  watchword  The  new 
that  rings  to-day,  with  all  the  force  and  charm  ment 
of  a  new  commandment,  through  the  heart  of 
a  Church,  which  has  felt,  more  deeply  than  it 
has  yet  confessed,  the  age-pervading  chill  of 
a  winter  of  doubt  and  discontent.  The  very 
entrance  of  that  mystic  and  reviving  word  has 
already  brought  a  glow  of  enthusiasm  into  the 
Christian  life,  and  caused  new  blossoms  of  hope 
and  love,  manifold  and  beautiful  activities  of 
help  and  healing,  to  appear  in  the  earth.  It 
seems  as  if  some  fresh  and  secret  tide  of  vital- 
ity were  flowing  through  the  veins  of  Christen* 
dom,  and  breaking  everywhere  towards  the 
light  in  deeds  of  charity  and  enterprises  of 
mercy.  Hospitals,  asylums,  red  cross  societies, 
rescue  missions,  salvation  armies,  spring  into 
existence  as  if  by  magic.  Never  has  there 
been  a  time  when  Christian  men  have  tried  to 
169 


170  The  Source  of  Authority 

The  new  do  so  much  for  their  fellow-men  in  the  name 
and  for  the  sake  of  Christ.  Never  has  there 
been  a  time  when  they  have  recognized  so 
clearly  and  fully  that  there  was  so  much  yet 
to  be  done.  It  is  an  age  of  secular  doubt,  as 
many  other  ages  have  been.  But  it  is  also  an 
age  of  Christian  beneficence,  as  hardly  any 
other  age  has  been.  And  this  beneficence  is 
not  self-satisfied  and  complacent.  It  is  self- 
reproachful,  and,  in  its  best  expressions,  nobly 
discontented  with  all  that  has  been  accom- 
plished hitherto.  It  seeks,  not  always  wisely, 
but  with  splendid  eagerness,  for  plans  which 
shall  lead  beyond  the  relief,  to  the  prevention 
of  human  suffering.  It  aims  to  bring  about 
not  only  the  immediate  mitigation,  but  also  the 
ultimate  abolition,  of  war.  It  demands  that 
charity  shall  be  translated  into  the  terms  of 
national,  as  well  as  of  individual  life.  It  will 
not  be  satisfied  until  in  some  real  and  palpable 
sense  the  kingdom  of  this  world  is  become  the 
kingdom  of  our  Lord  and  of  His  Christ.1 

Christ  is  the  Now  this  renewal,  this  splendid  expansion  of 
Christian  activities,  evident  by  many  signs  to 
all  thoughtful  observers,  depends  for  its  power 
and  permanence  upon  the  setting  forth  of 
Christ,  vividly,  personally,  practically,  as  the 
i  Rev.  xi.  15. 


The  Source  of  Authority  171 

pattern  of  all  virtue  and  the  Prince  of  Peace 
among  men.  The  sense  of  absolute  confidence 
in  Him  as  the  perfect  example  of  goodness,  and 
of  thorough  loyalty  to  Him  as  the  Master  of 
noble  life,  is  the  hidden  reservoir  of  moral 
force.  The  organized  charities  of  Christendom 
are  the  distributing  system.  Not  more  instant 
and  more  complete  would  be  the  water-famine 
on  Manhattan  Island  if  the  great  dam  among 
the  Croton  hills  were  broken  and  all  the  lakes 
and  streams  dried  up,  than  the  drought  that 
would  fall  upon  the  beneficence  of  the  world  if 
there  were  a  sudden  break  in  the  reservoir  of 
love  and  loyalty  in  Christian  hearts  to  their 
moral  Master,  or  a  stoppage  of  the  myriad  and 
multiform  feeders  which  keep  it  full  by  preach- 
ing Christ. 

But  in  all  this  renewal  and  expansion  of  what  The  Peril  °f 
is  well  and  proudly  called  practical  Christianity,  Christianity 
there  is,  if  I  mistake  not,  a  danger,  or  at  least 
a  serious  possibility,  of  loss.  The  life  of  man 
is  not  only  practical,  it  is  also  intellectual.  His 
relations  to  his  fellow-men  are  important,  but 
his  relation  to  truth  is  no  less  important.  He 
cannot  help  acting ;  neither  can  he  help  think- 
ing. When  his  thinking  is  divorced  from  his 
acting,  when  he  has  one  standard  for  truth  and 
a  different  standard  for  conduct,  he  is  like  a 


172 


The  Source  of  Authority 


What  does 
it  mean 
to  preach 
Christ  f 


house  divided  against  itself.  If  the  Christian- 
ity of  to-day,  by  dwelling  exclusively  or  too 
much  on  the  ethical  side  of  the  Gospel  as  a 
beautiful  and  beneficent  rule  of  conduct  illus- 
trated by  a  perfect  Example,  tends  to  ignore  the 
intellectual  necessities  of  man  and  fails  to  real- 
ize that  it  has  a  message  to  deliver  in  the  realm 
of  truth  as  well  as  in  the  realm  of  righteous- 
ness, it  will  not  and  it  cannot  meet  the  deepest 
wants  of  the  present  age.  Indeed,  it  may  even 
aggravate  those  wants  and  make  them  more 
painful.  It  may  seem  to  give  assent,  by 
silence,  to  the  desperate  assumption  of  scepti- 
cism that  the  unseen  world  is  unknown  and 
unknowable,  even  to  the  most  perfect  of  men. 
It  may  foster  the  sad  feeling  that  the  reality  of 
religion  is  beyond  our  reach  and  that  we  must 
content  ourselves  with  the  convenient  dreams 
of  virtue.  It  may  preach,  in  effect,  a  Christ 
whose  character  and  conduct  are  to  be  accepted 
as  infallible,  but  whose  thoughts  and  convic- 
tions in  regard  to  God  and  the  soul  and  the 
future  life  are  mere  fallacies  and  illusions. 

Preach  Christ,  if  it  is  to  be  a  true  watchword 
for  our  ministry  to  the  present  age,  must  be 
cleared  and  vivified  and  expanded  in  our  con- 
sciousness. We  must  know  what  we  mean  by 
it,  and  we  must  try  to  know  what  we  ought  to 


The  Source  of  Authority  t  173 

mean.  We  must  ask  ourselves  again  and  again 
whether  the  thing  that  we  do  mean  is  always 
quite,  or  even  approximately,  the  thing  that  we 
ought  to  mean  when  we  use  this  precious  and 
powerful  phrase.  It  was  commonly  employed, 
say  fifty  years  ago,  to  describe  by  way  of  dis- 
tinction a  presentation  of  Jesus  which  dwelt 
chiefly  or  entirely  upon  His  death  as  the  vicari- 
ous sacrifice  for  sin.  It  is  frequently  employed 
now  as  if  it  meant  little  or  nothing  more  than 
the  graphic  description  of  Christ's  life  and 
actions  as  the  supreme  type  of  virtue  and  love. 
But  surely  to  preach  Christ  exclusively  in  either 
of  these  ways  is  to  divide  Him.  It  is  not  enough 
to  have  a  Christocentric  theology.  It  is  not 
enough  to  have  a  Christocentric  morality.  We 
must  not  only  put  Him  at  the  centre;  but  we 
must  also  draw  the  circumference  so  that  it 
shall  embrace  the  whole  of  human  life. 

If   Christ   is  the  Lamb  of   God  that  taketh  A  gospel  for 
away  the  sin  of  the  world,1  He  is  also  the  true  a>c?e  Oj 
Light  which  lighteth  every  man  that  cometh  human  life. 
into  the  world.2     If  He  is  the  fulfilment  of  all 
dim  prophecies  of  good,  He  is  also  the  head  and 
source  of  a  new  unfolding  of  spiritual  vision. 
If  He  is  the  way  and  the  life,  He  is  also  the 
truth.3     If  He  is  immortal  love,  regenerating 

1  St.  John  i.  29.        2  St.  John  i.  9.        *  St.  John  xiv.  6. 


174 


The  Source  of  Authority 


the  affections,  He  is  also  immortal  wisdom  re- 
organizing the  thoughts,  and  immortal  power 
strengthening  the  wills,  of  men.  If  His  heart 
is  to  be  the  norm  of  our  feeling,  His  mind  is 
to  be  the  norm  of  our  thinking.  If  He  is  the 
herald  and  founder  of  a  new  and  celestial 
dominion  upon  earth,  He  is  also  the  source  of 
authority  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 


The  king- 
dom of 
heaven  the 
keynote  of 
Christ's 
teaching. 


The  idea  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  as  an  act- 
ual reign  of  God  over  living  men,  in  which  all 
ancient  anticipations  of  good  are  accomplished 
and  a  new  state  of  virtue  and  blessedness  is  es- 
tablished on  earth,  was  foremost  and  dominant 
in  the  teaching  of  Jesus.1  It  was  the  keynote 
of  His  ministry.  Everything  that  He  said, 
everything  that  He  did,  was  in  harmony  with 
this  master  thought. 

It  is  passing  strange  to  see  how  often  and 
how  utterly  this  keynote  has  been  changed  in 
the  variations  which  men  have  woven  about  the 

1  The  word  "  kingdom  "  is  used  in  the  Gospels  more  than 
a  hundred  times  to  express  the  new  condition  of  human  life 
which  Christ  came  to  announce  and  establish.  In  St. 
Matthew's  Gospel  the  favourite  phrase  is  "the  kingdom  of 
heaven."  St.  Mark  and  St.  Luke  use  "the  kingdom  of 
God." 


The  Source  of  Authority,  175 

original  theme  of  Christianity ;  and  how  far  •**«&«  inter- 
we  are,  even  yet,  from  hearing  it  clearly,  and  pn 
sounding  it  with  dominant  fulness,  in  the 
music  of  religion.  At  times  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  has  been  identified  with  the  visible 
church  as  an  outward  embodiment  of  power  in 
the  world.  And  surely  this  interpretation  is 
far  enough  away  from  the  thought  of  Christ, 
who  taught  expressly  that  the  kingdom  was 
invisible  and  inward.  At  other  times  men  have 
removed  their  conception  from  the  present  to 
the  future,  and  looked  for  its  realization  in  the 
life  of  the  redeemed  after  death,  or  in  the  second 
coming  of  Christ  to  reign  in  millennial  glory. 
And  surely  this  interpretation  is  equally  remote 
from  Christ's  teaching,  at  the  very  outset  of  His 
ministry  and  all  through  its  course,  that  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  was  at  hand,  that  it  had 
already  come  near  to  men,  and  was  lying  all 
around  them,  close  to  them,  pressing  upon  them 
from  every  side  so  that  many  were  already  en- 
tering into  it  and  dwelling  within  it. 

The  unreality   and  incompleteness   of  these   The  idea 
two  opposite   interpretations   of   the   kingdom 
produced  their  natural  results.     The  idea  fell 
out  of  its  true  place  in  Christian  thought.     It 
became   obscure,  subordinate,  and  was  finally 


176  The  Source  of  Authority 

almost  obliterated.  No  further  illustration  of 
this  statement  is  necessary  than  that  which 
may  be  obtained  by  consulting  one  of  the  most 
popular  aids  to  the  study  of  the  Bible :  Talbot's 
Analysis,  revised  by  the  Rev.  Nathaniel  West, 
and  again  revised  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Roswell  D. 
Hitchcock,  and  set  forth  under  the  title  of  A 
Complete  Analysis  of  the  Holy  Bible;  or,  the 
Whole  Bible  arranged  in  Subjects.1  In  the  in- 
dex to  this  work  there  is  but  one  solitary 
reference  to  the  kingdom  of  God.  When  we 
turn  to  look  at  it,  we  find  eleven  verses,  under 
the  heading  of  "  The  Millennium  ;  the  Growth  of 
the  Kingdom  of  God."  The  kingdom  of  heaven 
is  dismissed  with  a  general  reference  to  the 
Parables.  To  any  one  who  is  really  familiar 
with  his  New  Testament,  the  insufficiency  of 
such  a  treatment  of  one  of  its  controlling  ideas 
must  appear  evident  and  surprising. 

The  idea  But  it  may  be  said  that  in  very  recent  times 

begins  to  be    ^ere  }iag  been  an  intense  revival  of  interest  in 

restored. 

this  idea  and  an  immense  amount  of  good  work 
done  in  the  study  and  explication  of  it.  This 
is  true  and  it  should  be  gratefully  recognized. 
Such  books  as  those  which  Dr.  James  S.  Cand- 
lish  and  Professor  A.  B.  Bruce  have  written 

1  Wilmore's  New  Analytical  Reference  Bible  (New  York, 
1891). 


The  Source  of  Authority  177 

upon  "  The  Kingdom  of  God,"  are  most  valua- 
ble gifts  to  Christian  literature.1  And  yet  I 
will  frankly  confess  that  these  books,  and  others  • 
like  them,  seem  to  me  rather  to  point  the  way 
than  to  reach  the  goal.  The  fulness  of  the 
conception  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  not 
yet  restored  in  current  theology.  Its  regnancy 
in  all  spheres  of  human  life  is  not  yet  com- 
pletely rounded.  There  is  still  a  great  deal 
of  work  to  be  done  in  this  direction  by  the 
•Christian  thinker  and  the  Christian  preacher. 
The  vision  of  the  kingdom  is  obscured,  the 
proclamation  of  the  kingdom  is  weakened,  be- 
cause it  is  still  presented  too  exclusively  as 
a  kingdom  of  grace,  and  not  with  equal  em- 
phasis as  a  kingdom  of  truth :  it  is  set  up  too 
partially  as  a  standard  for  the  character  and 
conduct  of  men,  and  not  with  equal  clearness 
as  a  standard  for  their  thoughts  and  convic- 
tions. 

One  reason  of  this  one-sidedness,  it  seems  to  it  must  be 

.  ,  studied  in 

xr_8,  lies  in  the  fact  that  we  have  hitherto  been  aiifour 
looking  almost  entirely  to  the  first  three  Gos-  Gospels. 
pels  as  the  source  of  our  knowledge  of  the  true 

1  The  Kingdom  of  God,  Biblically  and  Historically  Con- 
sidered, James  S.  Candlish  (Edinburgh,  darks,  1884).  The 
Kingdom  of  God,  or  Christ's  Teaching  according  to  the 
Synoptical  Gospels,  Alexander  Balmain  Bruce  (New  York, 
Scribners,  1889). 


178  The  Source  of  Authority 

meaning  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  But  the 
Fourth  Gospel,  if  indeed  it  be,  as  the  best 
modern  scholars  say  it  is,  "the  most  faithful 
image  and  memorial  of  Jesus  that  any  man 
could  produce,"  must  be  no  less  important,  no 
less  significant  in  the  light  which  it  throws 
upon  this  controlling  idea  of  His  mind.  And 
when  we  turn  to  study  it  with  this  aim  in  view, 
we  find  at  once  that  it  gives  us  what  we  need. 
It  completes  and  rounds  out  the  record  of  the 
three  other  Gospels.  It  answers  the  ques- 
tions which  they  suggest.  It  keeps  the  prom- 
ises which  they  seem  to  make  to  our  faith. 
And  it  is  only  when  we  take  the  fourfold 
narrative  in  its  entirety  that  we  begin  to  catch 
sight  of  the  satisfying  and  convincing  fulness 
of  the  idea  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 
The  king-  This  idea  underlies  the  whole  Gospel  accord- 
St.  John.  ing  to  St.  John.  It  is  no  less  fundamental,  no 


less  necessary  here  than  it  is  in  the  Synoptic 
Gospels.  It  is  presented  in  different  forms, 
because  the  type  of  the  writer's  mind  and  the 
purpose  of  his  book  are  different.  But  it  is 
the  same  idea.  And  this  presentation  of  it  is 
essential  to  its  completeness. 

In  the  Synoptics  we  have  the  conditions  of 
entrance  into  the  kingdom,  a  child-like  spirit,1 
i  St  Matt,  xviii.  3. 


The  Source  of  Authority  179 

faith,1  repentance,2  and  obedience.3  In  St.  John  Compared 
we  have  the  spiritual  birth  by  which  alone  synoptic^ 
those  requisites  are  made  possible.4  In  the 
Synoptics  we  have  the  laws  of  the  kingdom.6 
In  St.  John  we  have  the  new  life  in  which 
alone  those  laws  can  be  fulfilled.6  In  the 
Synoptics  we  have  the  parables  and  pictures 
of  the  kingdom.7  In  St.  John  we  have  the 
inmost  sense  of  those  parables,  spoken  directly 
to  the  soul,  in  words  of  which  Christ  Himself 
says  "they  are  spirit,  and  they  are  life."8  In 
the  Synoptics  we  have  the  new  order  of  human 
society  in  the  imitation  by  the  disciples  of 
Christ's  obedience  to  the  will  of  God.9  In  St. 
John  we  have  the  organizing  principle  of  that 
new  order  in  Christ's  revelation  of  Himself  to 
the  disciples  as  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the 
life.10  In  the  Synoptics  we  have  the  supremacy 
of  Christ's  example  over  men's  hearts.  In  St. 
John  we  have  the  supremacy  of  Christ's  teach- 
ings over  men's  minds. 

Of  course,  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  either 

1  St.  Matt.  ix.  22  ;  St.  Mark     *  St.  Matt,  xiii.,  xxi.,  xxv. ; 

x.  52.  St.  Luke  xiii.,  xvii.,  xix., 

2  St.  Luke  xiii.  3.  etc. 

3  St.  Matt.  v.  20.  8  St.  John  vi.  63;  viii.  12-61. 
*  St.  John  iii.  5.  9  St.  Matt.  xii.  50. 

6  The  Sermon  on  the  Mount.      10  St.  John  xiv.  6. 
6  St.  John  vi.  22-65. 


180  The  Source  of  Authority 

Both  views  of  these  aspects  of  the  kingdom  is  confined  ex- 
clusively to  the  source  in  which  it  is  most  fully 
and  clearly  exhibited.1  But  this  is  what  I 
mean.  The  Synoptics  give  us  the  first  and 
simplest  description  of  the  nature  of  the  king- 
dom. St.  John  gives  us  the  fullest  and  clear- 
est revelation  of  the  mind  of  the  King.  We 
cannot  understand  the  former  without  the  lat- 
ter. We  cannot  enter  into  the  full  meaning 
of  the  initial  proclamation  of  Jesus,  when  He 
walked  beside  the  Sea  of  Galilee  crying  "  The 
kingdom  of  heaven  has  come  near,"  2  unless  we 
go  on  with  Him  to  the  judgment-hall,  and  hear 
Him  give  His  final  answer  to  Pilate  :  "  Thou 
sayest  that  I  am  a  King ;  to  this  end  have  I 
been  born,  and  to  this  end  am  I  come  into  the 
world,  that  I  should  bear  witness  unto  the 
truth ;  every  one  that  is  of  the  truth  heareth 
my  voice. "  3 

When  we  stand  at  this  point,  when  we  ac- 
cept this  declaration  as  the  key  to  unlock  and 
open  the  inmost  meaning  of  the  manifestation 
of  the  Father  in  the  human  life  of  the  Son,  we 

1  See  Bruce,  The  Kingdom  of  God,  p.  185,  on  the  personal 
claim  of  Christ  in  the  Synoptics.     See  R.  F.  Horton,  The 
Teaching  of  Jesus  (New  York,  1896),  pp.  219-233,  on  relation 
between  Synoptic  doctrine  of  the  kingdom  and  Johannine 
doctrine  of  eternal  life. 

2  St.  Matt.  iv.  17.  »  St.  John  xviii.  37. 


The  Source  of  Authority  181 

•••• 

begin  to  apprehend  the  inexhaustible  scope  and   The  kin9- 

./»  p  •,-,    .  i     y^,,     .    ,  dom  of  truth 

significance  of  our  call  to  preach  Christ  to  an  ^  weU  as  Oj 
age  of  doubt.  It  is  a  gospel  not  only  for  the  grace. 
affections,  but  also  for  the  intellect.  It  takes 
up  His  words  as  well  as  His  works  and  makes 
them  vital  in  the  lives  of  men.  It  conceives 
and  proclaims  the  kingdom  of  heaven  as  some- 
thing more  than  "  the  reign  of  divine  love  ex- 
ercised by  God  in  His  grace  oyer  human  hearts 
believing  in  His  love  and  constrained  thereby 
to  yield  Him  grateful  affection  and  devoted 
service."1  It  is  also  the  reign  of  divine  truth 
exercised  through  a  faithful  witness  over  the 
minds  of  men  who  submit  to  His  guidance  and 
are  led  by  Him  into  inward  peace  and  unity  of 
thought.  And  the  source  of  authority  in  this 
kingdom  of  heaven,  which  is  equally  a  realm  of 
truth  and  a  realm  of  grace,  is  Jesus  the  Christ, 
whose  doctrine,  as  well  as  His  example,  is  ulti- 
mate and  supreme. 

n 

Let  us  observe  in  passing  that  we  have  pre-   The  King  u 
cisely  the  same  basis  to  rest  upon  in  our  preach- 
ing of  the  doctrine  of  Jesus  as  in  our  preaching 
of  His  character  and  life.    If  historical  criticism 
1  Bruce,  The  Kingdom  of  God,  p.  46. 


182  The  Source  of  Authority 

gives  us  good  reason  to  believe,  as  all  candid 
inquirers  now  admit,  that  the  four  Gospels  con- 
tain a  veritable  picture  of  an  actual  personage 
who  once  lived  on  earth,  there  is  equally  good 
reason  to  believe  that  they  have  preserved  for 
us  a  trustworthy  account  of  His  teaching  in  its 
substance  and  spirit.  If  we  can  justly  claim 
The  doctrine  that  His  character  is  so  perfect  and  transcen- 
dent that  no  man  of  that  age,  however  gifted  or 
learned,  and  least  of  all  such  men  as  the  writers 
of  the  New  Testament,  could  possibly  have  in- 
vented it ;  we  can  make  the  same  claim,  with 
equal  justice,  for  the  body  of  doctrine  which 
is  attributed  to  Christ.  In  its  coherence,  its 
clarity,  its  sublimity,  and  its  universality  it 
altogether  surpasses  the  mental  abilities  and 
the  religious  insight  of  the  writers  of  the  four 
Gospels.  Indeed,  it  is  frankly  confessed  that 
the  disciples  of  Jesus  were  so  far  from  being 
able  to  invent  His  doctrine,  that  they  actually 
misunderstood  and  misinterpreted  many  of  its 
truths  when  they  first  heard  them.  It  was 
contrary  to  their  prejudices  and  expectations. 
They  did  not  put  it  into  His  mouth.  He  re- 
vealed it  to  their  minds.  Their  faith  in  it 
rested  upon  His  personal  authority.  And  it 
was  only  as  they  kept  company  with  Him 
and  followed  Him,  receiving  His  word  into 


The  Source  of  Authority  183 

their  souls  and  translating  it  into  their  lives, 
that  it  became  to  them  luminous  and  satisfy- 
ing and  convincing. 

We  are  entitled,  or  rather  we  are  compelled,  An  objective 

' 

to  regard  the  teaching  of  Jesus  as  an  objective 
fact  just  as  much  as  His  life  and  character. 
The  record  of  it  bears  on  its  face  the  over- 
whelming evidence  of  verity.  All  the  results 
of  literary  criticism  are  squarely  against  the 
supposition  that  such  a  doctrine  as  that  which 
is  presented  to  us  under  His  name  in  the  four 
Gospels,  could  ever  have  been  pieced  together 
out  of  the  thoughts  and  imaginations  of  widely 
separated  and  divergent  minds,  and  attributed 
to  an  unknown  and  perhaps  mythical  Master. 
It  is  not  a  mosaic  ;  it  is  a  living  unity.  It  is 
not  a  creation  of  faith  ;  it  is  the  creator  of  faith. 
The  hypothesis  that  four  men  agreed,  or  hap- 
pened, to  gather  together  out  of  the  Hebrew 
prophets,  and  the  heathen  philosophers,  and  the 
mysterious  and  inexplicable  inner  conscious- 
ness of  the  new-born  Christian  churches,  cer- 
tain beautiful  ideas  in  regard  to  God  and  the 
soul  and  the  future  life,  and  ascribe  them  to 
Jesus,  utterly  breaks  down  at  the  touch  of  real- 
ity. The  central,  unifying,  formative  quality 
of  the  teaching  of  Christ  is  the  one  thing  that 


184  The  Source  of  Authority 

is  most  evident  in  the  record.  It  is  empha- 
sized by  all  the  phenomena  of  growth,  of  vital 
development,  of  deepening  power,  which  may 
be  traced  from  the  sermon  in  the  synagogue 
at  Nazareth  to  the  discourse  in  the  upper  room 
at  Jerusalem.  It  shines  out  unmistakably 
through  all  the  living  variety  of  impressions 
which  it  made  upon  various  minds,  and 
through  all  the  consequent  many-sidedness  of 
the  report  which  is  given  of  it.  Not  more 
certainly  did  the  character  of  Christ  inspire 
and  unite  the  lives  of  His  followers  than 
His  doctrine  illuminated  and  controlled  their 
beliefs.  The  only  view  which  meets  the  facts 
is  that  Jesus  really  lived,  and  really  taught, 
thus  and  so,  as  He  is  presented  to  us  in  the 
Gospels. 

The  form  of  This  brings  us  at  once  to  the  most  important 
feature  in  the  record  of  His  teaching.  It  is  not 
given  to  us  in  the  form  of  an  abstract  system, 
a  treatise  on  theology,  or  a  summary  of  doc- 
trine, written  down  by  the  hand  of  Jesus.  He 
Himself  made  no  record  of  His  words.  Only 
once  do  we  see  Him  writing,  — in  the  beautiful 
episode  which  a  later  tradition  has  added  to  the 
eighth  chapter  of  St.  John's  Gospel.  Histori- 
cal or  not,  the  incident  is  profoundly  sugges- 
tive. For  Jesus  wrote  not  with  a  pen  upon 


The  Source  of  Authority  185 

enduring  parchment,  nor  with  a  stylus  upon 
imperishable  brass : 

"  He  stooped 
And  wrote  upon  the  unrecording  ground." 1 

He  would  not  leave  even  a  single  line  of  manu- 
script where  His  followers  could  preserve  it 
with  literal  reverence  and  worship  it  as  a 
sacred  relic.  He  chose  to  inscribe  His  teach- 
ing upon  no  other  leaves  than  those  which  are 
folded  within  the  human  soul.  He  chose  to 
trust  •  His  words  to  the  faithful  keeping  of 
memory  and  love  ;  and  He  said  of  them,  with 
sublime  confidence,  that  they  should  never  pass 
away.2  He  chose  that  the  truth  which  He 
declared  and  the  life  which  He  lived  should 
never  be  divided,  but  that  they  should  go  down 
together  through  the  ages. 

And  this  is  precisely  what  has  come  to  pass,   inseparable 
The  Church  in  past  ages  has  often  been  inclined  Srom  His 

character. 

to  abstract  the  doctrines  of  Christianity  concern- 
ing the  person  and  work  of  Christ  from  their 
union  with  His  human  life,  and  to  condense 
them  into  a  purely  formal  system  of  dogma  for 
the  intellect.  The  Church  in  the  present  age 
shows  at  least  a  tendency  to  separate  the  image 

1  Katrina  Trask,  "A  Night  and  Morning  in  Jerusalem" 
(Harper's  Magazine,  April,  1896). 

2  St.  Mark  xiii.  31. 


186  The  Source  of  Authority 

of  Jesus  from  the  truths  which  He  taught,  and 
hold  Him  up  to  men  merely  as  an  ideal  of  holi- 
ness and  goodness.  But  the  one  barrier  that 
stands  firm  against  both  these  false  tendencies 
is  the  marvellous  narrative  of  the  Gospels,  in 
which  the  life  and  the  doctrine  of  Christ  are 
woven  together,  one  and  inseparable,  like  a 
robe  without  seam. 
Words  and  How  can  we  understand  His  grace,  unless  we 

life  interpret  ,   TT .  . ,    0      TT  .    .      TT . 

each  other,  accept  His  truth  ?  How  can  we  appreciate  His 
truth,  unless  we  receive  His  grace  ?  At  every 
step,  His  action  is  interpreted  and  explained  by 
His  words.  He  trusts  in  Providence,  and  He 
commands  His  disciples  to  trust,  not  merely  be- 
cause submissive  confidence  is  a  beautiful  and 
happy  thing,  but  because  He  knows  and  declares 
that  God  is  really  a  Father,  worthy  to  be  trusted.1 
He  prays,  secretly  and  openly;  secretly  because 
He  is  sure  that  God  hears  Him  always,  and 
openly  because  He  would  fain  give  this  as- 
surance to  others.2  He  seeks  the  sinful  and 
the  lost,  not  merely  because  such  a  ministry  is 
lovely  and  gracious,  but  because  He  knows  and 
declares  that  it  is  the  will  of  God,  and  that 
there  is  more  joy  in  heaven  over  one  sinner 
that  repenteth  than  over  ninety-and-nine  just 

1  St.  Matt.  vi.  25-30.  2  St.  John  xi.  41,  42. 


The  Source  of  Authority  187 

men  that  need  no  repentance.1  He  cares  for 
the  bodies  of  men  and  He  relieves  their  wants, 
but  He  cares  infinitely  more  for  their  souls  and 
He  teaches  them  to  care  more,  because  He 
knows  that  the  soul  is  capable  of  immortality 
and  more  precious  than  all  that  this  world  can 
give.2  He  moves  willingly  and  obediently  to 
the  cross,  not  because  it  is  inevitable,  not  be- 
cause resignation  is  the  crown  of  virtue,  but 
because  He  knows  and  declares  that  this  is  the 
sacrifice  appointed  for  Him  as  the  Christ,  the 
laying  down  of  His  life  as  a  ransom  for  many, 
the  lifting  up  by  which  He  is  to  draw  all  men 
unto  Himself.3  He  goes  down  into  death  with 
unshaken  courage,  not  because  it  is  a  fine  thing 
to  be  brave,  but  because  He  knows  and  declares 
that  He  is  returning  to  the  Father  and  that  He 
will  bring  those  who  love  Him  to  be  with  Him 
where  He  is  forever.4 

Now  these  are  declarations  of  great  truths.    The  doctrine 
If  we  deny  them,  if  we  make  them  uncertain, 


the   life  which  was   built   upon   them   has   no  conduct. 
meaning,  no  substance,  no  power  in  it.     It  be- 
comes a  splendid  illusion,  a  heroic  mistake. 


1  St.  Luke  xv.  7. 

2  St.  John  vi.  27;   St.  Mark  viii.  36,  37. 

8  St.  Mark  ix  12  ;  St.  Matt.  xx.  28 ;  St.  John  xii.  32. 
*  St.  John  xiv.  1-3. 


188  The  Source  of  Authority 

But  if  we  accept  them,  then,  and  only  then, 
that  life  becomes  the  rock  of  our  confidence, 
the  substance  of  things  hoped  for  and  the  evi- 
dence of  things  not  seen.1  For  it  was  on  the 
knowledge  of  these  things  that  Jesus  actually 
founded  His  own  character  and  His  conduct. 
It  was  by  believing  thus  and  so,  and  by  living 
up  to  His  belief,  that  He  was  made  perfect. 
And  it  was  by  teaching  His  disciples  to  believe 
thus  and  so  that  He  would  bind  them  to  follow 
His  example  and  inspire  them  to  share  His  life. 
"  Whosoever  heareth  these  sayings  of  mine  and 
doeth  them,  I  will  liken  him  unto  a  wise  man 
which  built  his  house  upon  a  rock."2  "Now 
ye  are  clean  through  the  word  which  I  have 
spoken  unto  you."  "If  ye  abide  in  me,  and 
my  words  abide  in  you,  ye  shall  ask  what  ye 
will  and  it  shall  be  done  unto  you."3 


1  "  Nicht  das  Leben  Jesu  an  sich  in  seinem  geschichtlichen 
Verlaufe,  sondern  die  Auffassung  der  religiosen  Bedeutung 
desselben,  auf  welche  die  alteste  N.  T.  liche  Verkundigung 
ruht,  bildet  den  Ausgangspunkt  fur  die  biblische  Theologie. 
Diese  Auffassung  war  aber  zunachst  bedingt  durch  die  Lehre 
Jesu,  sofern  dieselbe  die  authentische  Erlauterung  liber  die 
Bedeutung  seiner  Person  und  seiner  Erscheinung  gab,  und 
daher  muss  eine  Darstellung  dieser  Lehre  den  grundlegenden 
Abschnitt  der  biblischen  Theologie  bilden."  —  BERNHARD 
WEISS,  Lehrbuch  der  Biblischen  Theologie  des  Neuen  Testa- 
ments (2te  Auflage,  Berlin,  1873),  p.  31. 

2  St.  Matt.  vii.  24.  3  St.  John  xv.  3,  7. 


The  Source  of  Authority  189 

m 

The  importance  which  Christ  ascribed  to  The 
His  words  as  the  authoritative  revelation  of 
unseen  verities  to  the  confused  and  darkened  teaching. 
minds  of  men,  cannot  be  denied  or  overlooked 
by  any  one  who  reads  the  Gospels  candidly  and 
intelligently.  It  is  true,  indeed,  that  He  ex- 
pressly disclaimed  the  idea  that  His  doctrine 
was  created,  or  invented,  or  even  discovered  by 
Himself.  He  said,  "My  doctrine  is  not  mine 
but  His  that  sent  me,"1  "All  things  that  I 
have  heard  of  my  Father  I  have  made  known 
unto  you."2  But  it  is  equally  true  that  He 
claimed  an  absolute  infallibility  for  the  mes- 
sage which  was  revealed  in  Him,  committed 
unto  Him,  and  delivered  by  Him.  This  claim 
is  made  with  equal  force  in  the  Synoptics  and 
in  St.  John.  "No  one  knoweth  who  the  Son 
is,  save  the  Father;  and  who  the  Father  is, 
save  the  Son,  and  he  to  whomsoever  the  Son 
willeth  to  reveal  Him."3  "  We  speak  that  we 
do  know,  and  bear  witness  of  that  we  have 
seen."4  This  is  not  the  language  that  an 
honest  and  conscientious  teacher  would  use  to 
describe  his  religious  opinions  or  his  spiritual 

i  St.  John  vii.  16.  8  St.  Luke  x.  22. 

«  St.  John  xv.  15.  *  St.  John  iii.  11. 


190  The  Source  of  Authority 

hopes.  The  wisest  and  the  best  of  men  have 
always  hesitated  to  assume  this  tone  of  cer- 
tainty in  regard  to  their  deepest  reflections 
upon  the  mysteries  of  being.  But  from  first 
to  last  this  tone  marks  the  teaching  of  Jesus. 
"They  were  astonished  at  His  teaching;  for 
He  taught  them  as  having  authority,  and  not 
as  the  scribes."1 

I{ is  It  is  evident  that  He  intended  to  speak  thus. 

For  nothing  is  more  striking  in  the  manner  of 
His  teaching  than  the  absence  of  all  reliance 
upon  corroborative  testimony  or  traditional 
support.2  He  did  not  seek  to  defend  His  posi- 
tions with  a  formidable  array  of  great  names. 
He  did  not  make  a  long  catena  of  quotations 
from  learned  sources.  He  gave  out  His  doc- 
trine from  the  depth  of  His  own  consciousness 
as  a  flower  breathes  perfume,  fresh,  pure,  origi- 
nal, and  convincing.  He  certainly  felt  a  Divine 
inspiration  in  the  ancient  Hebrew  Scriptures. 
The  law  and  the  prophets  conveyed  to  Him  the 

1  St.  Mark  i.  22. 

2  "  Avec  une  certitude  sereine,  qui  ne  semble  pas  terrestre, 
il  disait  ces  choses.     II  chantait,  comme  aucun  prophete 
n'avait  su  le  faire,  le  chant  des  revoirs  (kernels  qui  a  berce* 
pendant  des  siecles  les  souffrances  et  les  agonies.    Et  ce 
chant-la,  voici  que  de  nos  jours,  au  triste  de'clin  des  temps, 
les  hommes  se  ineurent  de  ne  plus  1' entendre." — PIBKRB 
LOTI,  La  Galilee  (Paris,  1896),  p.  94. 


The  Source  of  Authority  191 

word  of  God.  He  used  them  on  certain  occa- 
sions to  repel  the  assaults  of  evil,  as  in  the  temp- 
tation in  the  wilderness.  He  used  them  on  other 
occasions  to  convince  and  convict  the  Scribes 
and  Pharisees  out  of  their  own  Scriptures. 
But  He  never  rested  upon  them  as  the  sole  and 
sufficient  basis  of  His  doctrine.  He  was  not  a 

commentator  on  truths  already  revealed.     He 

,          ,.  , ,         TT.  revelation. 

was  a  revealer  of  new  truth.     His  teaching  was 

not  the  exposition  ;  it  was  the  text.  And  this 
higher  revelation  not  only  fulfilled,  but  also 
surpassed,  the  old ;  replacing  the  temporal  by 
the  eternal,  the  figurative  by  the  factual,  the 
literal  by  the  spiritual,  the  imperfect  by  the 
perfect.  How  often  Jesus  quoted  from  the  Old 
Testament  in  order  to  show  that  it  was  al- 
ready old  and  insufficient;  that  its  forms  of 
speech  and  rules  of  conduct  were  like  the  husk 
of  the  seed  which  must  be  shattered  by  the 
emergence  of  the  living  germ.  His  doctrine 
was  in  fact  a  moral  and  intellectual  day- 
break for  the  world.  He  did  far  more  than 
supply  a  novel  system  of  conduction  for  an 
ancient  light.  He  sent  forth  from  Himself  a 
new  illumination,  transcending  all  that  had 
gone  before,  as  the  sunrise  overfloods  the  pale 
glimmering  of  the  morning  star  set  like  a 
beacon  of  promise  upon  the  coast  of  dawn. 


192  The  Source  of  Authority 

it  is  self-  He  did  not  rely  upon  reasoning  for  the  proof 

evidencing.        .-«•••»*»  ,    -      ,1 

of  His  doctrine.  He  put  no  trust  in  the  com- 
pulsion of  logic,  in  the  keenness  of  dialectics. 
We  look  in  vain  among  His  words  for  an 
exhibition  of  the  "evidences  of  Christianity." 
He  did  not  endeavour  to  demonstrate  the  ex- 
istence of  God  or  the  immortality  of  the  soul. 
What  He  said  was  meant  to  be  its  own  evi- 
dence. His  method  was  not  apologetic ;  it 
was  declaratory. 

"  He  argued  not,  but  preached,  and  conscience  did  the  rest." 

The  result  of  this  is  marvellous  and  magnifi- 
cent. His  teaching  is  cleared  and  disentangled 
from  all  that  is  temporary  and  transient  in 
human  thought.  If  He  had  reasoned  with 
men,  it  must  have  been  done  upon  the  prem- 
isses and  in  the  forms  of  philosophy  current 
in  that  age.  Otherwise  He  could  not  have 
reached  their  intelligence,  His  reasoning  would 
have  been  of  none  effect.  But  because  He 
passed  by  all  these  processes  and  left  them  on 
one  side  while  His  doctrine  moved  simply,  di- 
rectly, and  majestically  to  the  heart  of  the  truth, 
it  comes  to  us  to-day  free  and  unencumbered 
by  any  of  those  theories  of  physical  science,  of 
psychology,  of  political  economy,  which  the 
growth  of  knowledge  has  changed,  discredited, 


The  Source  of  Authority  193 

or  discarded.  His  teaching  is  neither  ancient 
nor  modern,  neither  deductive  nor  inductive, 
neither  Jewish  nor  Greek.  It  is  universal, 
enduring,  valid  for  all  minds  and  for  all  times. 
There  are  no  more  difficulties  in  the  way  of 
accepting  it  now  than  there  were  when  it  was 
first  delivered.  It  fits  the  spiritual  needs  of 
the  nineteenth,  as  closely  as  it  fitted  the 
spiritual  needs  of  the  first,  century.  It  car- 
ries the  same  attractions,  the  same  credentials 
in  the  Western  Hemisphere  as  it  carried  in 
the  Eastern.  It  stands  out  as  clearly  from  all 
the  later,  as  it  did  from  all  the  earlier,  philoso- 
phies. It  finds  the  soul  as  inevitably  to-day 
as  it  did  at  first.  And  the  men  of  this  age 
who  hear  Christ  can  only  say,  as  His  disciples 
said  long  ago,  "Lord,  to  whom  shall  we  go? 
Thou  hast  the  words  of  eternal  life."  l 

And  yet  how  few  are  those  words,  compared  it  is  small 
with  the  utterances  of  other  teachers.  How 
small  in  compass  is  the  doctrine  of  Jesus  as  it 
has  come  down  to  us.  Eighty  pages  of  a  duo- 
decimo book  will  hold  all  of  His  recorded  dis- 
courses and  the  story  of  His  life.  Other  words 
He  must  have  spoken  while  He  was  on  earth, 
but  I  doubt  not  that  they  moved  within  the 
same  circle.  For  even  in  the  present  record 

i  St.  John  vi.  68. 
o 


194 


The  Source  of  Authority 


Itsfontal 
quality. 


An  unfail- 
ing source. 


we  find  the  same  truths  recurring  again  and 
again,  expressed  in  different  language,  arranged 
in  different  sequence,  as  the  evangelists  re- 
trace, each  from  his  own  point  of  view,  the 
memory  of  the  things  which  Jesus  taught  to 
the  multitudes  and  to  His  disciples.  The  lit- 
erature of  the  world  holds  no  other  doctrine 
so  limited  in  bulk,  so  limitless  in  meaning. 

The  teaching  of  Christ  differs  from  that  of 
all  other  masters  in  its  fontal  quality.  It  is 
comprised  in  a  little  space,  but  it  has  an  infi- 
nite fulness.  Its  utterance  is  closely  bounded, 
but  its  significance  is  inexhaustible.  The 
sacred  books  of  other  religions,  the  commen- 
taries and  expositions  on  the  Christian  religion, 
spread  before  us  a  vast  and  intricate  expanse, 
like  lakes  of  truth  mixed  with  error,  stretch- 
ing away  into  the  distance,  arm  after  arm, 
bay  after  bay,  until  we  despair  of  being  able 
even  to  explore  their  coasts  and  trace  their 
windings.  When  we  come  back  to  Christ,  we 
find,  not  an  inland  sea  of  doctrine,  but  a  clear 
fountain  of  living  water,  springing  up  into 
everlasting  life. 

Calm,  pure,  unfathomable,  it  is  never  clouded 
and  it  never  fails.  The  inspiration  of  other 
teachers  rises  and  falls  like  an  intermittent 
spring.  To-day  it  is  brimming  full;  to-mor- 


The  Source  of  Authority  195 

row  it  is  empty  and  dry.  But  the  truth  that 
flows  from  Jesus  is  constant  and  unvarying. 
The  Spirit  always  rests  upon  Him.  The 
Father  is  always  with  Him.  Out  of  the  deep 
serenity  of  His  soul,  as  from  some  secret  vale 
of  peace  high  among  the  eternal  hills,  the  vital 
spring  of  truth  wells  up  forever,  and  forever 
the  crystal  stream  runs  down  to  refresh  and 
revive  the  souls  of  men. 

New  meanings  come  out  of  the  teaching  of  Always 
Jesus  in  every  land  and  in  every  age.  New 
stars  are  mirrored  in  its  depths.  New  flowers 
blossom  on  its  banks.  New  fields  of  love  are 
fertilized  by  its  waters.  It  is  not  that  each 
succeeding  century  and  race  adds  something  of 
its  own  to  the  doctrine  of  Christ.  It  is  that 
each  finds  in  that  source  something  which  was 
meant  to  become  its  own,  and  so  to  satisfy  its 
deepest  needs.  The  old  questions  are  repeated 
in  new  words,  and  the  new  answer  comes  in  the 
old  words.1  The  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus  does 
not  have  to  be  changed  and  adapted  to  fit  it  for 
a  world- wide  missionary  enterprise.  It  needs 
only  to  be  purified  from  the  things  that  men 

1  "  Socrates  asked  questions  which  his  disciples  tried  to 
answer ;  Jesus  provoked  His  disciples  to  ask  questions  which 
He  answered." — JAMES  STALKER,  Imago  Christi  (New  York, 
Armstrongs,  1889),  p.  270. 


196  The  Source  of  Authority 

have  mingled  with  it,  restored  to  the  simplicity 
that  is  in  Christ,  and  it  proves  itself  as  fresh,  as 
satisfying,  as  life-bestowing  to  the  thirsty  soul 
in  America  or  in  the  islands  of  the  sea,  as  it  did 
in  Galilee  or  on  the  hillsides  of  Judea. 
The  sim-  When  we  ask  ourselves  why  it  is  that  the 

i*  in  ^Christ,  doctrine  of  the  Master  has  this  enduring,  self- 
renewing,  fontal  character,  I  think  we  must 
find  the  answer  in  the  fact  that  it  simply  bears 
witness,  with  a  directness  and  inevitableness 
altogether  unparalleled,  to  the  actual  existence 
of  a  spiritual  world  corresponding  to  the  spirit- 
ual faculties  and  aspirations  of  men.  It  does 
not  turn  aside  to  discuss  metaphysical  problems 
or  theological  subtleties.  The  distinction  be- 
tween the  natural  and  the  supernatural  does  not 
even  appear  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  There 
may,  or  there  may  not,  be  such  a  distinction. 
If  there  is,  He  at  least  does  not  think  it  impor- 
tant enough  to  speak  of  it.  The  one  thing  of 
which  He  wishes  to  make  men  sure  is  that  the 
same  God  who  sends  His  sunshine  and  His  rain 
upon  the  evil  and  upon  the  good,  the  same  God 
whose  bounty  feeds  the  birds  of  the  air  and 
clothes  the  lilies  of  the  field  with  beauty,  hears 
in  secret  the  prayers  of  the  penitent  and  believ- 
ing and  rewards  them  openly.  The  question 
of  the  how  and  the  where  of  the  life  after  death 


The  Source  of  Authority  '  197 

is  not  even  touched  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus. 
It  matters  little.  The  one  thing  that  He  de- 
clares with  unfaltering  certainty  is  the  reality 
of  that  life.  The  one  thing  that  He  presses 
home  upon  the  minds  of  men  with  calm  inten- 
sity is  the  danger  of  losing  it  through  sin  and 
unbelief.  The  one  thing  that  He  tenderly  and 
urgently  pleads  with  them  to  do,  is  to  make 
sure  of  its  immortal  blessedness  through  faith 
and  love  and  obedience  to  Him.  And  so,  at 
every  point,  He  passes  by  the  non-essential  to 
touch  the  essential,  He  disregards  the  passing 
curiosity  to  satisfy  the  real  anxiety,  He  neglects 
the  shadows  to  reveal  the  substance  of  the 
unseen  world. 

Teaching  like  this  is  the  only  kind  of  teach-  Words  of 
ing  that  will  always  renew  itself,  always  have 
something  more  to  bestow  upon  us.  It  cannot 
grow  obsolete.  It  cannot  be  drained  of  its  sig- 
nificance. It  is  like  life.  Nay,  it  is  life,  and  it 
gives  life. 

IV 

Let  us  understand,  then,  that  if  our  Christi-  Loyalty  to 
anity  is  to  satisfy  our  whole  nature,  if  it  is  to 
have  its  real  and  full  meaning,  and  power  to 
bring  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  it   must   in- 
clude  this  element.     We  must  be  as  loyal  to 


198 


The  Source  of  Authority 


The  age 

demands 

authority. 


the  teaching  of  Jesus  as  we  are  to  His  example. 
We  must  count  no  pains  too  great  to  spend 
upon  the  study  of  that  teaching  as  it  lies  in 
the  records,  and  no  effort  too  severe  to  make 
in  order  that  it  may  be  restored  in  its  integ- 
rity and  entirety,  rounded  and  harmonized, 
within  the  very  centre  of  our  minds.  And 
then  we  must  preach  it,  simply,  sincerely,  cer- 
tainly, as  the  only  doctrine  which  can  lead 
men  out  of  the  intellectual  anarchy  of  doubt 
into  the  peaceful  realm  of  truth. 

This  is  what  the  age  is  looking  and  longing 
for.  It  can  find  no  joy  in  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  unless  it  finds  there  a  source  of  author- 
ity for  the  mind  as  well  as  for  the  heart.  Au- 
thority is  what  the  sociologist  demands,  in  order 
that  he  may  have  a  sure  basis  for  the  precepts 
of  altruism.  Authority  is  what  the  philosopher 
seeks,  in  order  that  he  may  have  a  fixed  point 
of  departure  and  certain  limits  of  speculation. 
Authority  is  what  the  poet  craves,  as  he  clings 

to 

"  The  truths  that  never  can  be  proved, 

Until  we  close  with  all  we  loved 
And  all  we  flow  from,  soul  in  soul."  * 

Men  are  crying  lo  here  !  and  lo  there !  We 
must  find  the  source  of  authority  in  an  in- 


1  Tennyson,  In  Memoriam. 


The  Source  of  Authority  199 

errant  Book,  or  in  an  enlightened  reason,  or 
in  an  infallible  Church,  or  perhaps  in  all  three ; 
as  if  there  could  be  three  sources  of  one  author- 
ity, or  as  if  a  channel  could  ever  be  rightly 
called  a  source!  Let  us  not  hesitate  to  pass 
through  this  confusion  of  tongues  and  of  ideas, 
serene  and  untroubled,  with  the  message  of  a 
more  excellent  way. 

Christ  is  the  Light  of  all  Scripture.  Christ  Christ  is  the 
is  the  Master  of  holy  reason.  Christ  is  the 
sole  Lord  and  Life  of  the  true  Church.  By 
His  word  we  test  all  doctrines,  conclusions, 
and  commands.  On  His  word  we  build  all 
faith.  This  is  the  source  of  authority  in  the 
kingdom  of  heaven.  Let  us  neither  forget 
nor  hesitate  to  appeal  to  it  always  with  un- 
trembling  certainty  and  positive  conviction. 
If  Christ  did  not  know  and  preach  the  truth, 
then  there  is  no  truth  that  can  be  known  or 
preached.  Unless  we  are  sure  of  this,  we 
would  better  go  out  of  business  entirely.  It 
is  inconceivable  that  the  loftiest  character  in 
history  should  be  the  most  mistaken  man  that 
«ver  thought  about  the  real  basis  and  meaning 
of  life.  It  is  incredible  that  the  noblest  life 
in  the  world  should  be  founded  upon  a  faith 
that  was  vain.  It  is  impossible  that  a  supreme 
devotion  and  a  real  likeness  to  Christ  should 


200  The  Source  of  Authority 

have  been  produced  and  perpetuated  in  the 
world  without  a  veritable  apprehension  of  that 
which  He  knew  and  taught  concerning  God 
and  man. 

Our  great  Xo  have  this  apprehension  clearly  formed 
His  'creed.  within  us  must  be  our  ardent  and  joyful  intel- 
lectual endeavour.  We  are  not  to  rest  content 
with  the  study  of  single  words  and  separate 
phrases.  The  limitations  of  language,  the  con- 
ditions of  transmission,  will  always  expose  us 
to  error  if  we  follow  that  course.  The  truth 
as  it  is  in  Jesus  does  not  lie  in  fragments,  but  in 
the  rounded  whole.  We  must  get  back  to 
the  unity  and  integrity  of  the  thoughts  of 
Jesus,  the  creed  of  Christ.  The  broad  outline 
of  His  vision  of  things  human  and  divine,  the 
central  verities  which  appear  firm  and  un- 
changeable in  all  the  reports  of  His  teaching, 
the  point  of  view  from  which  He  discerned 
and  interpreted  the  mystery  of  life, — that  is 
what  we  must  seek.  And  when  we  find  it, 
we  must  take  our  stand  there  as  men  who  feel 
the  solid  ground  beneath  their  feet.  Illustra- 
tions and  confirmations  we  may  gather  from 
science  and  history  and  philosophy.  But  the 
rock  of  certainty  is  the  mind  of  Jesus,  ex- 
pressed in  His  living  words  and  in  His  speak- 


The  Source  of  Authority  201 

ing  life.  Beyond  this  we  need  not  and  we 
cannot  go.  Here  is  the  ultimatum.  This  is 
the  truth,  we  say  to  men,  because  Jesus  knew 
it,  and  said  it,  and  lived  it. 

But  one  thing  we  may  not,  we  dare  not,  for-  We  must 
get.  The  condition  of  apprehending,  and  how  f 
much  more  of  preaching,  the  truth  revealed  by  doctrine. 
Christ  is  that  we  abide  in  Him.  The  word  of 
Jesus  in  the  mind  of  one  who  does  not  do  the 
will  of  Jesus,  lies  like  seed-corn  in  a  mummy's 
hand.  It  is  only  by  dwelling  with  Him  and 
receiving  His  character,  His  personality  so 
profoundly,  so  vitally  that  it  shall  be  with  us 
as  if,  in  His  own  words,  we  had  partaken  of 
His  flesh  and  His  blood,  as  if  His  sacred 
humanity  had  been  interwoven  with  the  very 
fibres  of  our  heart  and  pulsed  with  secret  power 
in  all  our  veins,  —  it  is  thus  only  that  we  can 
be  enabled  to  see  His  teaching  as  it  is,  and  set 
it  forth  with  luminous  conviction  to  the  souls 
of  men. 

And  if  ever  we  ourselves  become  afraid  of  Return  to 
our  own  task,  and  shrink  from  it ;  if  the  scep- 
ticism of  our  age  appalls  us  and  chills  us  to  the 
very  marrow  ;  if  we  question  whether  a  gospel 
so  simple,  so  absolute,  as  that  which  is  com- 
mitted to  us  can  find  acceptance  in  such  a 
world,  at  such  a  time  as  this,  —  be  sure  it  is 


202  The  Source  of  Authority 

because  we  have  gotten  out  of  fellowship  with 
Him  who  is  our  Peace  and  our  Hope,  our  Light 
and  our  Strength.  A  Christless  man  can  never 
preach  Christ.  We  have  been  anxious  and 
troubled  about  many  things,  and  have  forgot- 
ten the  one  thing  needful.  Peace  we  must  have 
before  we  can  have  power.  Let  us  straight- 
way return,  in  prayer,  in  meditation,  in  trust, 
in  faithful  simple-hearted  obedience,  to  Him 
who  is  the  only  centre  of  Peace  because  He  is 
the  only  source  of  authority. 

"  I  have  a  life  in  Christ  to  live, 

But  ere  I  live  it  must  I  wait 
Till  learning  can  clear  answer  give 

Of  this  and  that  book's  date  ? 
I  have  a  life  in  Christ  to  live, 

I  have  a  death  in  Christ  to  die ;  — 
And  must  I  wait  till  science  give 

All  doubts  a  full  reply? 

Nay,  rather,  while  the  sea  of  doubt 

Is  raging  wildly  round  about, 

Questioning  of  life  and  death  and  sin, 

Let  me  but  creep  within 

Thy  fold,  O  Christ,  and  at  Thy  feet 

Take  but  the  lowest  seat, 

And  hear  Thine  awful  voice  repeat 

In  gentlest  accents,  heavenly  sweet, 

Come  unto  Me  and  rest ; 

Believe  Me,  and  be  blest." * 

1  John  Campbell  Shairp. 


VI 

LIBERTY 


"  But,  perfect  in  every  part, 

Has  the  potter's  moulded  shape 
Leap  of  man's  quickened  heart, 
Throe  of  his  thought's  escape, 
Stings  of  his  soul  which  dart 

"  Through  the  barrier  of  flesh,  till  keen 
She  climbs  from  the  calm  and  clear 

Through  turbidity  all  between 

From  the  known  to  the  unknown  here, 

Heaven's  <  Shall  be,'  from  Earth's  '  Has  been  "I 

"  Then  life  is  —  to  wake  and  not  sleep, 

Rise  and  not  rest,  but  press 
From  earth's  level  where  blindly  creep 

Things  perfected,  more  or  less, 
To  the  heaven's  height,  far  and  steep, 

"  Where,  amid  what  strifes  and  storms 

May  wait  the  adventurous  quest, 
Power  is  Love  —  transports,  transforms 

Who  aspired  from  worst  to  best, 
Sought  the  soul's  world,  spurned  the  worms.' " 

—  ROBERT  BROWNING,  Reverie. 


VI 

LIBERTY 

THERE  are  three  points  at  which  the  teach-  Three  great 
ing  of  Jesus  comes  into  closest  contact  with  the  prc 
needs  of  the  present  age.  Three  problems  of 
profound  difficulty  are  pressing  to-day  upon  all 
thoughtful  men:  the  psychologicalFproblem  of 
the  freedom  of  the  will;  the  theological  prob- 
lem of  the  actual  relation  of  God  to  the  uni- 
verse ;  and  the  moral  problem  of  man's  duty 
to  his  fellow-men  in  a  world  of  inequality. 
Out  of  the  depths  of  these  problems  dark  and 
multitudinous  doubts  are  forever  rising,  like 
the  clouds  of  smoke  and  steam  which  issue  from 
the  labouring  bosom  of  Vesuvius,  while  sub- 
terranean thunder  is  muttering  and  rolling 
underneath.  Most  of  the  intellectual  perplex- 
ities and  practical  perils  of  our  times  come 
directly  from  these  questions,  to  which  modern 
scepticism  gives  an  answer  of  despair,  or  at 
best  only  a  dubious  and  uncertain  reply. 

But    the    gospel   of    Christ,   rightly   appre- 
hended and   interpreted,  offers   us   a   solution 
205 


206 


Liberty 


Three  great  of  these  problems  which  is  full  of  light  and 
erty  sover-'  n°Pe  and  moral  certainty.  There  is  a  breath 
eignty,  and  of  the  Spirit  in  His  teaching,  pure  and  strong, 
pouring  like  a  clean  wind  out  of  heaven,  to 
scoff  away  the  obscuring  vapours,  and  reveal  the 
changeless  verities  and  glories  of  the  spiritual 
landscape.  Three  truths  emerge  in  His  doc- 
trine, and  stand  out  clear  and  sharp  as  moun- 
tain peaks  against  the  blue :  the  truth  of 
human  liberty,  the  truth  of  Divine  sovereignty, 
and  the  tri^Ji  of  universal  service.  Of  these 
three  truths  we  must  never  lose  sight,  if  our 
thinking  is  to  be  in  accordance  with  the  mind 
of  Jesus.  To  these  three  truths  we  must  bear 
witness,  unhesitatingly,  faithfully,  and  joy- 
fully, if  our  preaching  is  to  be  a  gospel  for 
this  age  of  doubt. 


Modern  fa- 
talism. 


No  one  who  has  looked  steadily  upon  the 
face  of  modern  life  as  it  is  reflected  in  popular 
literature  can  doubt  that  it  is  "  sicklied  o'er " 
with  the  dark  shadow  of  fatalism.  It  is  evident 
in  the  writings  of  the  learned  and  in  the  scrib- 
blings  of  the  ignorant.  Everywhere  there  is  a 
tendency  to  explain  the  whole  life  of  man  as 
the  product  of  heredity  and  environment.  The 
student  of  physiology,  ti  oing  the  strange  and 


Liberty  ,  207 

subtle  correspondence  between  the  processes  of 
consciousness  and  the  changes  and  movements 
of  the  nervous  system,  makes  the  enormous 
assumption  that  the  correspondence  amounts  to 
identity.  All  the  hopes  and  fears,  all  the  affec- 
tions and  aspirations,  which  glorify  this  mortal 
life,  are  in  their  last  analysis  the  result  of  cer- 
tain puckerings  and  tintinnabulations  of  the 
gray  matter  of  the  nerves.  The  actions  which 
flow  from  them  are  as  necessary  as  the  fall  of 
an  apple  when  the  stem  is  broken.  The  caress  • 
which  a  mother  gives  to  her  child,  and  the  blow 
with  which  a  murderer  strikes  his  victim  dead, 
are  equally  automatic  and  inevitable.  They  are 
the  motions  of  delicately  constructed  puppets, 
and  the  triumph  of  modern  investigation  is  the 
discovery  of  the  string  which  moves  them  and 
the  forces  which  pull  it. 

It  is  true  that  many  of  the  teachers  who  steer  Materialism 
us,  more  or  less  openly,  towards  this  conclu- 
sion  are  careful  to  disavow  the  idea  that  they 
are  teaching  materialism.  The  name  is  highly 
unpopular  at  the  present  moment,  and  there 
is  hardly  one  of  the  men  of  science  of  to-day 
who  has  not  protested  with  indignation  that 
no  one  should  dare  to  call  him  a  materialist. 
They  have  devised  subtle  theories  of  some- 
thing called  "mind-stuff"  which  they  hold, 


208  Liberty 

with  W.  K.  Clifford,  "  is  the  reality  which  we 
perceive  as  matter."  They  distinguish,  with 
Huxley,  between  matter  and  force,  and  a  third 
thing  which  they  call  consciousness  and  which 
they  admit  cannot  conceivably  be  a  modifi- 
cation of  either  of  the  first  two  things ;  but 
they  go  on  to  say  that  "what  we  call  the 
operations  of  the  mind  are  functions  of  the 
brain,  and  the  materials  of  consciousness  are 
products  of  cerebral  activity."1  In  short,  they 
give  a  materialistic  explanation  of  the  origin 
and  processes  of  thought,  and  then  protect 
themselves  against  the  imputation  of  being 
materialists,  by  solemnly  averring  that  they 
have  not  the  slightest  idea  of  what  matter 
really  is,  nor  the  slightest  intention  of  sug- 
gesting that  it  has  any  resemblance  to  the 
so-called  mental  operations  which  are  prob- 
ably produced  by  one  of  its  own  forms  of 
activity. 

Responsible       A  scheme  like  this  certainly  has  no  room  for 
Out.  free-will  or  personal  responsibility.     It  makes 

a  man's  character  and  action  entirely  depen- 
dent upon  the  amount  and  quality  of  nervous 
energy  that  has  been  transmitted  to  him  by  his 
ancestors  and  developed  by  the  circumstances 
of  his  life.  He  lives,  as  Professor  Tyndall 
1  T.  H.  Huxley,  in  The  Fortnightly  fieview,  vol.  xi.,  793. 


Liberty  209 

says,  in  a  realm  of  "  physical  and  moral  neces- 
sity," —  though  why  he  should  be  at  pains  to 
say  "moral,"  I  can  hardly  conceive.  One  ad- 
jective would  serve  as  well  as  two,  when  they 
both  mean  the  same  thing.  It  requires  but 
a  little  exercise  of  this  nervous  energy  on  our 
part,  in  the  form  of  imagination,  to  trace  it  back 
to  its  previous  form  of  heat  stored  up  in  cer- 
tain hundredweights  of  food  and  appropriated 
by  digestion.  From  this  point  our  cerebral 
activity  skips  lightly  and  altogether  without 
volition  along  the  various  lines  of  animal  and 
vegetable  life,  of  chemical  and  physical  trans- 
formations of  energy,  until  we  arrive  at  the 
idea  of  the  sun.  From  this  idea  a  certain  un- 
controllable change  in  the  gray  substance  of 
our  brain  produces  the  further  notion  that 
the  arrangement  of  certain  quantities  of  mat- 
ter and  force  which  took  place  in  some  in- 
explicable way  long  before  the  birth  of  the 
solar  system  was  really  the  thing  that  settled 
the  question  whether  you  and  I  should  prefer 
telling  the  truth  to  lying,  —  if  we  do.  Indeed, 
there  never  has  been  any  question  at  all  about 
it;  it  was  fixed  from  the  beginning.  We  have 
no  more  responsibility  for  it  than  we  have  for 
the  colour  of  our  eyes  or  the  shape  of  our 
noses. ' 


210 


Liberty 


11  Thoughts 
of  an  Au- 
tomaton." 


I. have  found  a  brief  and  explicit  statement 
of  the  position  to  which  this  method  of  think- 
ing forces  those  who  follow  it,  in  an  article 
ironically  entitled  "  Thoughts  of  a  Human  Au- 
tomaton" in  a  recent  English  periodical.1 

"  I  am  an  automaton  —  a  puppet  dangling  on 
my  distinctive  wire,  which  Fate  holds  with  an 
unrelaxing  grip.  I  am  not  different,  nor  do  I 
feel  differently,  from  my  fellow-men,  but  my 
eyes  refuse  to  blink  away  the  truth,  which  is, 
that  I  am  an  automatic  machine,  a  piece  of 
clockwork  wound  up  to  go  for  an  allotted  time, 
smoothly  or  otherwise,  as  the  efficiency  of  the 
machinery  may  determine.  Free-will  is  a  myth 
invented  by  man  to  satisfy  his  emotions,  not 
his  reason.  I  feel  as  if  I  were  free,  as  if  I  were 
responsible  for  my  thoughts  and  actions,  just 
as  a  person  under  the  influence  of  hypnotism 
believes  he  is  free  to  do  as  he  pleases.  But  he 
is  not ;  nor  am  I.  If  it  were  once  possible  for 
a  rational  being  to  question  this  fact,  the  dis- 
coveries of  Darwin  must  have  set  his  doubts  at 
rest.  .  .  . 

44  What  is  crime  ?  A  crime  is  an  action 
threatened  by  the  law  with  punishment,  says 
Kant;  and  freedom  of  action  or  free-will 


1  Henry  Beauchamp,  in  The  Fortnightly  Review,  English 
edition,  March,  1892, 


Liberty  211 

is  a  legally  necessary  condition  of  crime.  But 
the  law  of  heredity  conclusively  demonstrates 
that  free-will  and  freedom  of  action  stand  in 
the  category  of  lively  imaginings.  Therefore 
crime,  as  the  law  understands  it,  is  non-existent, 
since  no  imputability  can  be  recognized  when  a 
man  is  not  responsible  for  his  actions.  There- 
fore the  law  is  not  justified  in  inflicting  pun- 
ishment. .  .  . 

"  Briefly  to  conclude.  Religion  can  no  more 
mix  with  science  than  oil  with  water.  Science 
acknowledges  no  necessity  for  the  existence  of 
religion,  and  finally  severs  the  bonds  between 
morality  and  religion.  Morality,  altogether 
independent  of  religion,  is  entirely  based  upon 
self -interest.  The  supposed  connection  between 
religion  and  morality  is  an  illusion  most  per- 
nicious to  the  general  welfare  and  advance 
of  mankind.  Religion,  as  a  superfluity,  should 
be  excluded  from  all  educational  institutions. 
Its  place  will  be  supplied  by  the  creed  of  scien- 
tific philosophy  —  Determinism.  The  primary 
principle  of  Determinism,  namely,  that  a  human 
being  is  an  automaton,  and  therefore  not  respon- 
sible for  his  thoughts  or  his  acts,  taken  together 
with  its  corollaries,  more  than  suffices  for  every 
intellectual  need  hitherto  provided  for  by  re- 
ligion. For  the  two  great  factors  in  the  value 


212  Liberty 

of  religion  are  its  ethics  and  its  sedative  prop- 
erties, and  in  both  these  uses  Determinism 
displays  overwhelming  intellectual  superiority. 
Its  ethics  are  more  universal  and  its  consolation 
more  assured ;  for  they  both  rest  on  irrefraga- 
ble scientific  truth.  The  Determinist  is  con- 
sequently never  harassed  by  doubts  —  the  Rock 
of  Ages  is  fragile  compared  with  the  adaman- 
tine foundation  of  his  creed." 

The  creed  of  This  curious  claim  of  an  automaton  to  have 
cessity.  a  tt  cree(^ »»  WOuld  be  deliciously  humorous,  if 
it  were  not  so  unutterably  sad,  and  so  detest- 
ably dangerous.  For  though,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  there  are  few  men  who  will  make,  even 
under  an  assumed  name,  such  a  candid  con- 
fession of  faith  in  their  own  moral  non -entity 
as  that  which  we  have  just  read,  there  are  many 
men  who  are,  consciously  or  unconsciously, 
preaching  the  same  black  creed  of  Necessity 
in  the  subtle  forms  of  literary  art,  and  multi- 
tudes who  are  silently  accepting  it  as  gospel 
truth.  Fatalism  broods  over  modern  fiction 
and  the  modern  drama  like  a  huge,  shapeless 
spectre ;  and  its  influence  is  felt  in  all  the 
judgments  and  conceptions  and  unspoken  but 
clearly  revealed  sentiments  of  a  society  which 
finds  its  chief  intellectual  pabulum  in  novels 
and  plays. 


Liberty  213 

Here  is  the  famous  French  realist,  Zola,  of  "The 
whose  books  it  is  said  that  enough  have  been 
sold  to  build  a  pile  as  high  as  the  Eiffel  tower. 
He  writes  a  novel  called  La  Bete  Humaine,  in 
which  he  shows  how  unswervingly  the  lines  of 
evil  run  through  the  plan  of  life.  He  describes 
seven  inevitable  murders,  occurring  within  eigh- 
teen months  in  close  connection  with  a  certain 
fated  house,  and  closes  his  book  with  the  descrip- 
tion of  a  railway  train,  crowded  with  soldiers, 
dragged  by  an  engine  whose  driver  has  been 
killed,  dashing  at  headlong  speed  into  the  mid- 
night. The  train  is  the  world ;  we  are  the 
freight ;  fate  is  the  track ;  death  is  the  dark- 
ness ;  God  is  the  engineer,  —  who  is  dead. 

Here  is  the  leader  of  the  Dutch  Sensitivists, 
Louis  Couperus,  who  writes  a  romance  called 
Noodlot,  " Destiny"  in  which  four  human  lives 
are  tangled  together  in  an  inextricable  and  hor- 
rible coil.  One  of  his  characters  pauses  for  an 
instant  in  the  shameful  career  to  which  he  is 
impelled.  "  He  threw  himself  back  in  his  chair, 
still  feebly  wringing  his  hands,  and  the  tears 
trickled  again  and  again  down  his  cheeks.  He 
saw  his  own  cowardice  take  shape  before  him. 
He  stared  into  its  frightened  eyes,  and  he  did 
not  condemn  it.  For  he  was  as  fate  had  made 


214 


Liberty 


"Ghosts." 


The  small 
fatalists. 


him.  He  was  a  craven,  and  he  could  not  heip 
it.  Men  called  such  an  one  as  he  a  coward ;  it 
was  but  a  word.  Why  coward,  or  simple  and 
brave,  or  good  and  noble  ?  It  was  all  a  matter 
of  convention,  of  accepted  meaning  ;  the  whole 
world  was  mere  convention,  a  concept,  an  illu- 
sion of  the  brain.  There  was  nothing  real  at 
all  —  nothing!"1 

Here  is  the  Norse  dramatist,  Ibsen,  —  the 
new  Shakespeare  by  the  grace  of  heredity.  He 
writes  a  drama  of  life  which  he  calls  Grhosts, 
and  shows  how  every  player  is  haunted  by  dead 
ancestors  who  look  through  his  eyes,  speak  in 
his  words,  and  act  in  his  deeds.  Echoes  of 
spent  passion,  shreds  and  patches  of  worn-out 
sin,  rags  and  tatters  of  the  past,  —  that  is  the 
stuff  of  which  life  is  fabricated,  like  a  piece  of 
shoddy  cloth,  in  the  great  mill  of  circumstance 
which  stands  on  the  banks  of  the  river  of  time 
and  turns  out  the  shabby  lives  of  men  and 
women. 

Nor  is  this  view  of  life  confined  to  the  great 
foreign  masters  of  realism.  It  pervades  almost 
all  the  minor  schools  of  fiction ;  it  diffuses  it- 
self insensibly  through  the  work  of  the  feeble 
and  fatuous  imitators.  A  keen  and  wholesome 


1  Louis  Couperus,  The  Footsteps  of  Fate  (New  York, 
Appletons),  p.  65. 


Liberty  215 

critic  of  our  own  literature,  Mr.  Charles  Dudley 
Warner,  put  his  finger  upon  the  fact  when  he 
wrote  :  "  It  has  come  about  that  the  novels  and 
stories  which  are  to  fill  our  leisure  hours  and 
cheer  us  in  this  vale  of  tears  have  become  what 
we  call  tragic.  It  is  not  easy  to  define  what 
tragedy  is,  but  the  term  is  applied  in  modern 
fiction  to  scenes  and  characters  that  come  to 
ruin  from  no  particular  fault  of  their  own, — 
not  even  when  the  characters  break  most  of  the 
ten  commandments,  —  but  by  an  unappeasable 
fate  that  dogs  and  thwarts  them.  This  is  the 
romance  of  fatality,  and  if  it  is  tragedy,  it  is 
the  tragedy  of  fatalism." 

It  is  not  possible  that  such  a  theory  of  ex- 
istence should  prevail  without  bringing  sadness  Melancholy 
and  heaviness  into  the  hearts  of  men.  The  marionettes< 
modern  melancholy  of  which  we  spoke  in  the 
first  lecture  is  largely  the  result  of  this  gen- 
eral sense  of  a  godless  predestination.  It  is 
Calvinism  with  the  bottom  knocked  out.  It 
robs  life  of  all  interest,  of  all  joy,  of  all  en- 
thusiasm. Was  it  morphine  that  drove  Guy  de 
Maupassant,  the  most  brilliant  of  the  younger 
French  novelists,  to  insanity?  Or  was  it  his 
philosophy  that  drove  him  to  morphine  as  a 
refuge  from  the  despair  and  ugliness  of  exist- 


216  Liberty 

ence  ?  Pessimism  exudes  from  fatalism  like 
sepia  from  the  cuttlefish.  What  could  be 
more  dispiriting  than  to  doubt  the  reality  of 
all  effort,  to  deny  the  possibility  of  self-con- 
quest and  triumph  over  circumstances,  to  find 
heroism  an  illusion  and  virtue  a  dream?  What 
could  break  the  spring  of  life  more  completely 
than  to  feel  that  our  feet  are  tangled  in  a  net 
whose  meshes  were  woven  for  us  by  our  ances- 
tors, and  for  them  by  tailless  apes,  and  for  them 
by  gilled  amphibians,  and  for  them  by  gliding 
worms,  and  for  them  by  ciliated  larvae,  and  for 
them  by  amoebae,  and  for  them  by  God  does 
not  know  what?  It  does  not  help  the  case 
in  the  least  to  do  as  some  theologians  have 
tried  to  do  and  bring  back  into  the  theory  by 
the  aid  of  certain  misconstrued  and  very 
much  overworked  passages  of  Scripture,  the 
idea  of  a  supreme  Deity  who  has  constructed 
the  loom  and  devised  the  pattern  of  the  net 
and  decreed  the  weaving  of  every  loop.  The 
chain  of  Fate  is  not  made  less  heavy  by  fasten- 
ing the  end  of  it  to  the  distant  throne  of  an 
omnipotent  and  impassive  Creator.  If  our 
false  sense  of  freedom  comes  from  such  a  Be- 
ing, who  is  Himself  free,  it  is  all  the  more  a 
Cruel  and  bitter  enigma,  If  moral  responsi- 


Liberty  217 

bility  has  been  imposed  upon  us  by  the  same 
hand  which  has  bound  us  to  an  inalterable 
destiny,  it  is  all  the  more  a  crushing  and  mis- 
erable fraud.  To  baptize  fatalism  with  a  Baptized 
Christian  name  does  not  change  its  nature. 
To  hold  fast  to  the  metaphysical  conception  of 
God  while  accepting  Heredity  and  Environment 
as  His  only  and  infallible  prophets  is  simply  to 
add  a  new  ethical  horror  to  the  dismal  delusion 
of  life,  and  to  fall  back  into  the  pessimism  of 
Omar  Khayyam. 

"  We  are  no  other  than  a  moving  row 
Of  Magic  Shadow-shapes,  that  come  and  go 
Round  with  this  Sun-illumined  Lantern,  held 
In  Midnight  by  the  Master  of  the  Show ; 

"  Impotent  Pieces  of  the  Game  He  plays 
Upon  this  Checker-board  of  Nights  and  Days; 
Hither  and  thither  moves,  and  checks,  and  slays, 
And  one  by  one  back  in  the  Closet  lays. 

"  The  Moving  Finger  writes ;  and,  having  writ, 
Moves  on ;  nor  all  your  Piety  nor  wit 
Shall  lure  it  back  to  cancel  half  a  Line, 
Nor  all  your  tears  wash  out  a  Word  of  it. 

"  And  that  inverted  Bowl  they  call  the  Sky, 
Whereunder  crawling  coop'd  we  live  and  die, 
Lift  not  your  hands  to  It  for  help — for  it 
As  impoteiitly  rolls  as  you  or  I." l 

1  Rubdiy&t  of  Omar  Khayy&m.  Rendered  into  English 
verse  by  Edward  Fitzgerald,  with  an  accompaniment  of  draw- 
ings by  Elihu  Vedder  (Boston,  1884),  stanzas  72,  73,  75,  76. 


218  Liberty 


is  determin-  This  is  the  solution  which  modern  positivism, 
christened  or  unchristened,  offers  for  the  prob- 
lem of  the  freedom  of  the  will.  Before  we 
turn  to  consider  the  very  different  answer 
which  Christ  gives  to  the  same  question,  let 
us  stay  for  a  moment  to  ask  whether  this 
current  and  popular  solution  is  of  the  nature 
of  a  demonstration,  or  of  the  nature  of  a  doubt. 
Is  it  so  clearly  proven  that  science  forces  us 
to  accept  determinism  ?  Or  is  it  an  unveri- 
fiable  assumption,  which  is  made  under  the 
influence  of  a  general  scepticism  in  regard  to 
spiritual  realities,  and  which  leaves  out  of 
view  quite  as  many  and  quite  as  important 
facts  as  those  which  it  professes  to  explain? 
Are  we  compelled  to  admit  it ;  or  is  it  only  one 
of  two  alternatives,  neither  of  which  is  scientifi- 
cally demonstrable,  so  that  the  choice  between 
them  must  rest  upon  other  considerations? 

I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  the  whole  weight 
of  sober  and  sane  criticism  inclines  to  the  lat- 
ter conclusion.  Determinism  has  not  yet  been 
established  either  by  physiological,  psychologi- 
cal, or  metaphysical  argument. 

Philosophy        The   common   assumption  that  the   abstract 
says  no.        reasoning   of    Jonathan   Edwards    against   the 


Liberty  219 

.A 

liberty  of  the  will  has  never  been  and  cannoc 
be  refuted,  is  based  upon  ignorance  of  the  facts. 
An  American  philosopher,  Mr.  Rowland  Haz- 
ard, has  answered  it  with  great  clearness  and 
force.  Professor  George  P.  Fisher  says  :  "  The 
fundamental  point  of  Mr.  Hazard's  criticism 
of  Edwards  is  fully  established.  It  must  be 
allowed  that  his  confutation  of  that  conception 
of  the  will  which  underlies  the  reasoning  of  the 
great  theologian  is  sound  and  conclusive."1 

The  support  which  modern  science  is  sup-  Science  says 
posed  to  give  to  the  theory  of  determinism 
turns  out,  upon  closer  examination,  to  be  alto- 
gether illusory.  The  soundest  and  most  care- 
ful investigators  utterly  decline  to  commit 
themselves  to  that  metaphysical  dogma,  or  to 
bind  out  science  as  a  maid-of-all-work  in  the 
service  of  fatalistic  theology. 

The  most  distinguished  of  living  English  Free-win  a 
scientists  recently  said:  "The  influence  of 
animal  or  vegetable  life  on  matter  is  infinitely 
beyond  the  range  of  any  scientific  inquiry 
hitherto  entered  on.  Its  power  of  directing 
the  motions  of  moving  particles,  in  the  demon- 
strated daily  miracle  of  our  human  free-will,  and 

1  Rowland  Hazard,  Freedom  of  Mind  in  Willing  (Boston, 
Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  1889).  Introduction  by  George  P. 
Fisher,  p.  xxxi. 


220  Liberty 

in  the  growth  of  generation  after  generation  of 
plants  from  a  single  seed,  are  infinitely  dif- 
ferent from  any  possible  result  of  the  fortui- 
tous concourse  of  atoms.  The  real  phenomena 
of  life  infinitely  transcend  human  science."1 
The  theory  that  consciousness  is  a  function  of 
the  brain  breaks  down  completely  when  it 
attempts  to  explain  the  phenomena  of  sleep. 
Why  should  all  the  other  functions  of  the 
body  be  carried  on  without  fatigue  and  with- 
out interruption  while  this  alone  demands  rest 
and  admits  of  intervals  of  cessation  ?  If  con- 
sciousness is  a  function  of  nerve-matter,  sleep 
abolishes  it.  How  does  it  come  back  again 
without  losing  the  sense  of  personal  identity? 
Thought  is  Is  it  conceivable  that  the  highest  character, 
notasecre-  ^he  loftiest  genius,  is  purely  an  intermittent 
secretion  of  certain  nerve-cells,  and  that  dur- 
ing the  hours  of  sleep,  embracing  one-third  of 
its  entire  history,  it  is  absolutely  non-existent  ? 
"  Function,"  says  an  eminent  neurologist,  "  is 
a  physiological  term,  and  it  is,  I  submit,  im- 
proper to  speak  of  states  of  consciousness  as 
being  functions  of  the  brain.  ...  It  is  not 
the  mind,  but  the  physical  basis  of  mind,  which 
is  a  product  of  physical  evolution.  It  is  the 

1  Lord  Kelvin  (Sir  William  Thomson) ,  in  The  Fortnightly 
Review,  March,  1892. 


Liberty  221 

organ  of  mind,  not  the  mind  of  itself,  which 
being  an  evolution  out  of  the  rest  of  the  body 
is  representative  of  it."1 

The  fact  that  the  brain  is  a  double  organ,  —   The  brain 


that  there   are   really  two  brains,  only  one  of  ° 

which   is  used,  —  cannot   be  explained  on  the 

theory  that  consciousness  is  merely  the  result 

of  the  vibration  of  nerve  filaments,  as  the  music 

of  the  JSolian  harp  is  the   result  of   the  pas- 

sage of  the  wind  over  its  strings.     A  distin- 

guished physiologist  has  cleverly  shown  that  if 

this  were  the  case  a  double  brain  would  mean 

a  double  amount  of  thought,  just  as  twice  the 

number  of  strings  would  mean  twice  the  quan- 

tity of  music.2     But  the  fact  that  this  is  not  so, 

points  clearly  to  the  hypothesis  that  the  brain 

is   not   an   JEolian    harp    helplessly   vibrating 

under   external   impulses,  but  a  double  organ 

with  two  sets  of  keys,  and  the  mind  is  like  the 

player  who  can  use  either  one  of  them  to  make 

the  music.     And  this  corresponds  closely  with 

our   own   sense  of  the   process.      For  we   are 

conscious   not   only   of    passive   thoughts   and 

1  Dr.  J.  Hughlings  Jackson,  "  Lecture  on  the  Comparative 
Study  of  Diseases  of  the  Nervous  System"  (British  Medical 
Journal,  August  17,  1889). 

2  Dr.   William  H.   Thomson,   Materialism  and  Modern 
Physiology  of  the  Nervous  System  (New  York,  Putnams, 
1892),  pp.  83  ff  . 


222  Liberty 

feelings,  evoked  within  us  by  external  causes, 
but  also  of  thoughts  and  feelings  voluntarily 
directed  and  combined,  woven  together  in  crea- 
tive harmonies,  and  moving  under  the  guidance 
of  chosen  ideals  towards  a  symphonic  complete- 
ness. Even  the  sense  of  discord  and  conflict 
which  often  rises  within  us  is  an  evidence  that 
there  is  a  player  as  well  as  an  instrument.  For 
it  is  inconceivable  that  an  JEolian  harp,  ill- 
strung,  should  dislike  its  own  bad  music,  and 
endeavour,  or  think  that  it  could  endeavour,  to 
make  a  better,  sweeter  sound. 

Heredity  not  Heredity  is  undoubtedly  a  real  and  power- 
ful force.  It  supplies  the  outfit  of  life.  But 
does  it  determine  the  use  which  we  shall  make 
of  it  ?  The  very  extension  of  the  doctrine 
by  the  investigations  of  science  dissolves  this 
narrow  and  absolute  conclusion.  We  inherit 
from  thousands,  from  hundreds  of  thousands, 
of  ancestors.  The  blood  of  many  families  and 
tribes  and  races  is  mingled  in  our  veins. 
What  is  it  that  decides  which  of  these  many 
lines  we  shall  follow  ?  It  must  be  either  blind 
chance  or  free  choice.  All  the  phenomena  of 
society,  all  the  facts  of  consciousness,  are  in 
favour  of  the  latter  supposition.  We  see  men 
whose  heritage  is  of  the  lowest  and  the  worst, 
working  their  way  up,  by  sheer  strength  of 


Liberty  223 

moral   choice   and   effort,  to   a  higher   plane. 
We  see  men  whose  heritage  is  of  the  loftiest 
and  the  best,  declining 

"  thro'  acted  crime, 
Or  seeming-genial  venial  fault, 
Recurring  and  suggesting  still,"1 

to  the  very  depths  of  infamy.  It  is  true  that 
a  man  cannot  bring  out  of  himself  anything 
that  is  not  already  there.  But  it  is  true  also, 
by  virtue  of  heredity,  that  there  are  many 
potential  men  in  every  man,  and  which  of  them 
is  to  emerge,  he  chooses  for  himself  by  a  thou- 
sand silent  moral  preferences  ;  by  yielding  or 
by  resisting;  by  the  cowardice  and  corruption, 
or  by  the  courage  and  purification  of  his  own 
free-will. 

Even  those  who  write  of  human  life  from  a  Moral judg- 
professedly  naturalistic  standpoint   cannot  g»et  * 
rid  of  this  conviction.     Take  Zola,  for  example,   liberty. 
If   he   were   consistent,  he  would   speak   with 
equal  and  impassive  coldness  of  all  his  charac- 
ters, tangled  together  in  the  inextricable  toils 
of  heredity.     But  he  cannot  help  letting  his 
hatred  and  contempt  for  the  selfish,  the  luxu- 
rious, the   vicious,  express   itself  in   the   very 
accent  with  which    he    describes    them.      He 
cannot  help  showing  his  admiration  and  affec- 
1  Tennyson's  poem,  Will. 


224 


Liberty 


The  testi- 
mony of 
modern 
psychology. 


tion  for  those  who,  like  Denise  and  Doctor 
Pascal,  and  Clotilde,  rise  out  of  the  infamy 
which  envelops  the  family  Rougon-Macquart. 
Virtue  and  vice  may  be  scientifically  treated 
as  if  they  were  merely  natural  products  like 
sugar  and  vitriol ;  but  when  we  come  to  talk 
of  them  from  a  human  and  humane  standpoint, 
there  is  something  within  us  which  demands 
that  we  shall  recognize  a  merit  in  being  virt- 
uous, and  a  shame  in  being  vicious, —  qualities 
which  can  never  belong  to  mere  secretions, 
whether  of  plants  or  of  nerves,  —  qualities 
which  have  no  possible  meaning  unless  there 
is  a  free-will  in  man,  capable  of  choosing  be- 
tween the  evil  and  the  good. 

Now  that  a  free-will  is  possible,  modern  psy- 
chology assures  us,  as  the  result  of  its  latest  re- 
searches. It  does  not  attempt  to  demonstrate 
the  existence  of  such  a  power  by  physiological 
investigation.  It  confesses  that  this  demon- 
stration is  impossible  with  our  present  know- 
ledge. But  it  declares  with  equal  candour  that 
the  contrary  attempt  to  show  that  the  sense  of 
freedom  is  a  delusion,  is  inconclusive.  "  The 
last  word  of  psychology  here,"  says  Professor 
William  James,  "is  ignorance,  for  the  forces 
engaged  are  too  delicate  and  numerous  to  be 
followed  in  detail."  He  points  out  the  ex- 


Liberty  225 

tremely  reckless  and  inconsequent  nature  of 
the  reasoning  by  which  the  determinists  seek 
to  make  mere  analogies  drawn  from  the  course 
of  rivers,  and  reflex  actions,  and  other  material 
phenomena,  serve  as  proofs  that  the  will  is  a 
mechanical  effect.  He  exposes  the  bold  as- 
sumption by  which  they  ignore  the  testimony 
of  consciousness  in  the  presence  of  feeling  and 
effort.  He  shows  that  the  utmost  which  any 
argument  for  determinism  can  do  is  to  present 
a  possible  hypothesis,  which  a  man  who  has 
already  determined  to  hold  fast  to  the  idea 
that  the  whole  universe  is  one  chain  of  inevi- 
table causation  may  accept  if  he  likes.  But 
meanwhile  the  other  alternative  stands  equally 
open.  The  moral  arguments  all  point  in  that 
direction.  The  only  course,  in  such  a  situa-  Free-will  is 
tion,  is  voluntary  choice.  "For  scepticism  it-  po& 
self,  if  systematic,  is  also  voluntary  choice.  If, 
meanwhile,  the  will  be  indetermined,  it  would 
seem  only  fitting  that  the  belief  in  its  inde- 
termination  should  be  voluntarily  chosen  from 
amongst  other  possible  beliefs.  Freedom's 
first  deed  should  be  to  affirm  itself.  .  .  . 
Thus  not  only  our  morality  but  our  religion, 
so  far  as  the  latter  is  deliberate,  depends  on 
the  effort  which  we  can  make.  '•Will  you  or 
won't  you  have  it  so  f '  is  the  most  probing 
Q 


226  Liberty 

question  we  are  ever  asked :  we  are  asked  it 
every  hour  of  the  day,  and  about  the  largest 
as  well  as  the  smallest,  the  most  theoretical  as 
well  as  the  most  practical,  things.  We  answer 
by  consents  or  non-consents,  and  not  by  words. 
What  wonder  if  these  dumb  responses  should 
seem  our  deepest  organs  of  communication 
with  the  nature  of  things !  What  wonder  if 
the  effort  demanded  by  them  should  be  the 
measure  of  our  worth  as  men !  What  wonder 
if  the  amount  which  we  accord  of  it  be  the 
one  strictly  underived  and  original  contribu- 
tion which  we  make  to  the  world !  " 1 


ni 

Christ  says  Here,  then,  modern  science,  careful,  exact 
reverent,  as  distinguished  from  modern  scep- 
ticism, leaves  us  before  the  two  doors.  And 
here  Christ  comes  to  us,  calling  us  to  enter 
through  the  door  of  liberty  into  the  pathway  of 
eternal  life.  "Ask,  and  it  shall  be  given  you; 
seek  and  ye  shall  find;  knock  and  it  shall  be 
opened  unto  you."2  "If  any  man  willeth  to 
do  His  will,  he  shall  know  of  the  teaching."3 

1  William  James,  Psychology,  vol.  ii.,  p.  679. 

2  St.  Matt.  vii.  7. 
8  St.  John  vii.  17. 


Liberty  227 

The  whole  life  and  ministry  of  Jesus  is  a  The  life  of 

Jesus,  a 

revelation  of  moral  freedom.  His  entrance  revelation  of 
into  the  world  was  voluntary.  His  continu-  f™*~wil1- 
ance  in  human  life  was  voluntary.  His  death 
was  voluntary.  At  the  first  crisis  of  His  life 
He  chose  to  go  about  His  Father's  business. 
In  the  temptation  He  chose  to  resist  the  allure- 
ments of  th3  Evil  One.  On  the  way  to  the 
cross  He  cho^e  not  to  call  on  God  for  the 
deliverance  which  He  knew  would  come  in 
answer  to  His  call.  He  was,  indeed,  fulfilling 
an  appointed  task,  treading  the  path  which 
had  been  marked  out  for  the  feet  of  the 
Christ ;  but  He  was  fulfilling  the  task  freely; 
He  was  walking  in  liberty  because  He  loved 
to  do  the  will  of  God.  The  triumph  of  His 
virtue  lay  in  the  freedom  of  His  choice. 

There  was  a  singular  propriety  in  the  text  of  The  preach- 
His  first  public  discourse.     It  was  a  declaration  a  gospei  Of 
of  liberty,  as  well  as  of  grace.    It  was  an  eman-  liberty. 
cipation  proclamation  as  well  as  a  gospel  of  com- 
fort and  help.     "  The  spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon 
me,  because  He  anointed  me  to  preach  good 
tidings  to  the  poor;  He  hath  sent  me  to  pro- 
claim release  to  the  captives,  and  recovering  of 
sight  to  the  blind,  to  set  at  liberty  them  that 
are  crushed,  to  proclaim  the  acceptable  year  of 


228  Liberty 

the  Lord."1  And  what  was  the  oppressive 
bondage  from  which  He  proclaimed  release? 
Was  it  not  the  tyranny  of  a  false  doctrine  of 
necessity  over  the  minds  of  men,  as  well  as  the 
enslaving  influence  of  sin  over  their  inert  and 
hopeless  wills? 
ThePhari-  Here  were  the  scribes  and  Pharisees  teach- 

sees  taught      .  .,  .,  ,,  ,,  T    •  i    -i     •    , 

Fate.  m£   that  the   whole   world  was   divided   into 

two  classes, — the  chosen  and  the  not-chosen,  the 
righteous  for  whom  salvation  was  secure  what- 
ever they  might  do,  and  the  sinners  for  whom 
salvation  was  impossible  whatever  they  might 
do.  Here  were  the  outcast,  the  lost,  the  neg- 
lected, shut  out,  by  no  choice  of  their  own,  but 
by  their  birth,  by  the  occupations  in  which 
they  were  engaged,  by  their  ignorance,  by  the 
very  conditions  of  their  life,  from  all  part  in 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  as  the  scribes  and 
Pharisees  conceived  it ;  not  only  the  harlots 
and  the  publicans,  but  also  Am  Haarez,  "the 
people  of  the  land,"  with  whom  it  was  not  fit- 
ting that  a  righteous  person  should  have  any 
dealings ; 2  miserable  souls,  bound  by  inheri- 
tance to  a  desperate  and  unhallowed  fate.  Here 
came  Jesus,  taking  His  way  directly  to  these 
lost  ones,  these  outsiders,  and  telling  them  that 
all  this  doctrine  of  inevitable  doom  was  a  chain 
l  St.  Liuke  iv.  18,  ?  Bruce,  Kingdom  of  God,  145. 


Liberty  *         229 

of  lies,  breaking  the  imaginary  fetters  from  Jesus  taught 
their  souls  and  assuring  them  by  His  first 
word  that  they  were  free,  even  though  they 
were  ignorant  of  it.  "Repent,"  He  cried,  "for 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  has  approached  unto 
you."1  "Except  ye  be  converted  and  become 
as  little  children,  ye  shall  not  enter  into  the 
kingdom  of  heaven."2  And  what  is  the  signifi- 
cance of  these  words,  "repentance"  and  "con- 
version," —  their  real  significance,  I  mean,  not 
that  which  has  been  read  into  them  by  centuries 
of  false  and  formal  theology?  They  are  not 
passive  and  involuntary  words ;  they  do  not  rest 
upon  the  idea  of  qualifications  which  may  or 
may  not  be  in  the  possession  of  those  to  whom 
Christ  speaks.  They  are  active  words,  —  words 
of  inward  movement  and  exertion.  "  Repent " 
means  change  your  mind;  make  that  simple 
effort  of  the  soul  for  internal  change  which 
is  the  ultimate  act  of  the  free  will ;  3  put  forth 

1  St.  Matt.  iv.  17. 

2  St.  Matt,  xviii.  3. 

8  "  Every  intelligent  being,  capable  of  conceiving  of  higher 
ethical  conditions  than  he  has  yet  attained,  has  in  his  own 
moral  nature  for  the  exercise  of  his  creative  powers  an  infi- 
nite sphere,  within  which  ...  he  is  the  supreme  disposer. 
...  A  man  who  does  not  want  to  be  pure  and  noble,  may  yet 
begin  one  step  lower  in  the  scale  of  moral  advancement,  with 
the  wish  to  want  to  be  pure  and  noble  ;  and,  here  commenc- 
ing the  cultivation  of  his  moral  nature,  ascend  from  this  lower 


230  Liberty 

that  power  of  fixed  attention  to  the  new  motive 
which  is  the  central  essence  of  liberty  and  the 
creative  force  of  the  soul.1  "Be  converted," 
as  Christ  spoke  the  word,  is  not  passive;  it 
expresses  an  action  exercised  by  the  soul  within 
itself ;  it  means  simply  "  turn  around " ;  set 
yourself  in  a  new  relation  to  God,  to  truth,  to 
Faith  is  virtue.  The  name  of  this  relation  is  faith. 
"Believe"  is  Christ's  great  word.  It  is  the 
"open  sesame"  of  the  kingdom.  "Believe  in 
God,  believe  also  in  Me."  2  "  He  that  believeth 
hath  everlasting  life."  3  "All  things  are  possible 
to  him  that  believeth."  4  But  it  is  never  spoken 
of  as  a  mere  intellectual  opinion,  or  emotional 
experience,  an  irresistible  conviction  wrought 
by  external  evidence  in  the  mind,  or  bestowed 
without  effort  upon  the  soul.  The  Bible  never 
says  that  faith  is  a  gift.  There  is  a  voluntary 
element  in  it.  It  is  something  to  be  done  by 
the  exercise  of  an  inward  power.  It  is  a  com- 
ing of  the  soul  to  Christ ;  it  is  a  following  of  .the 

point,  through  the  want  to  be  pure  and  noble,  to  the  free  effort 
to  gratify  this  want."  —  ROWLAND  HAZARD,  Freedom  oj 
Mind  in  Willing,  "Of  Effort  for  Internal  Change"  (Bos- 
ton, Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  1889),  chap.  xiv. 

1  "The  essential  achievement  of  the  will  when  it  is  most 
*  voluntary,'  is  to  attend  to  a  difficult  object  and  hold  it  fast 
before  the  mind."  — JAMES,  Psychology,  vol.  ii.,  p.  661. 

2  St.  John  xiv.  1.    »  St.  John  vi.  47.    *  St.  Mark  ix.  23. 


Liberty  231 

soul  after  Him ;  it  is  the  first  step  in  a  long 
course  of  spiritual  activity.  It  is  a  deed.  The 
disciples  said  unto  Christ,  "What  must  we  do 
that  we  may  work  the  works  of  God  ?  "  Jesus 
answered,  "This  is  the  work  of  God,  that  ye 
believe  on  Him  whom  He  hath  sent."1 

Now  there  is  not  a  hint  in  all  the  teaching  of  All  may 
Jesus  that  this  first  act  of  freedom  is  impossible 
for  any  soul  to  whom  He  speaks.  He  has  no 
idea  of  an  eternal  predestination  binding  some  to 
belief  and  others  to  unbelief,  a  secret  decree  in- 
cluding certain  men  in  the  kingdom  and  exclud- 
ing others  from  all  possibility  of  entering  into  it. 
It  is  true  that  He  says,  "  No  man  can  come  unto 
Me  except  the  Father  draw  him  " ; 2  but  what  He 
means  by  this  drawing  He  tells  us  in  the  par- 
able of  the  Lost  Son,  where  it  is  the  simple 
knowledge  of  the  Father's  abundant  love  that 
draws  the  prodigal  back  from  the  far  country 
of  sin;3  and  in  the  parable  of  the  Publican  in 
the  Temple, 4  where  it  is  the  sense  of  the  Divine 
mercy  and  forgiveness  that  makes  the  outcast 
man  cry,  "God,  be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner." 
There  is  prevenient  grace  in  the  doctrine  of 
Jesus.  But  the  grace  is  there.  It  has  already 
come.  All  that  man  has  to  do  is  to  meet  it,  to 

1  St.  John  vi.  28,  29.  •  St.  Luke  xv. 

3  St.  John  vi.  44.  *  St.  Luke  xviii.  10-14. 


232 


Liberty 


Christ  is 
God's  call 
tofaith. 


No  predesti- 
nation to 
death. 


put  himself  into  the  upward  swing  of  it,  that  it 
may  lift  and  help  him  heavenward. 

A  calling  and  a  choosing  by  God  are  neces- 
sary before  any  man  can  be  saved.  But  Jesus 
does  not  speak  of  this  choosing  and  calling  as 
eternal.  Christ  Himself  is  the  call,  and  all 
who  answer  it  are  chosen.  "  If  any  man  thirst, 
let  him  come  unto  Me  and  drink."1  "Him  that 
cometh  unto  Me  I  will  in  no  wise  cast  out."2 
The  heavenly  invitation  is  set  forth  in  all  its 
generosity  and  sincerity  in  the  story  of  the 
Marriage  Feast.3  The  bidding  went  out  into 
the  highways  and  hedges,  to  the  bad  and  to  the 
good;  and  all  who  heard  and  accepted  it  were 
welcome.  And  if  a  single  guest  was  turned 
away,  it  was  only  because  his  own  conduct 
showed  that  he  had  not  really  taken  the  invi- 
tation honestly  and  accepted  willingly  all  that 
was  provided  for  him. 

There  is  not  a  single  word  in  all  that  Jesus 
said  to  suggest  any  other  reason  than  this  for 
the  exclusion  of  a  single  person  from  the  bless- 
ings of  the  kingdom.  "  Ye  will  not  come  unto 
Me  that  ye  might  have  life."4  "How  often 
would  I  have  gathered  thy  children  together 
even  as  a  hen  gathereth  her  chickens  under 


1  St.  John  vii.  37. 

2  St.  John  vi.  37. 


3  St.  Matt.  xxii.  1-14. 

4  St.  John  v.  40. 


Liberty  233 

her  wings,  and  ye  would  not."  1  There  is  not 
one  statement  that  anything  else  but  mercy 
and  grace  has  been  eternally  prepared  by  God 
for  any  human  soul.  In  that  awful  parable  of 
judgment  which  discloses  the  convincing  picture 
of  the  final  separation  of  the  evil  from  the 
good,  Christ  says  distinctly  that  the  joy  of 
the  blessed  has  been  prepared  for  them  from 
the  foundation  of  the  world,  but  of  the  punish- 
ment of  the  cursed,  He  says  with  equal  dis- 
tinctness that  it  was  not  prepared  for  them, 
but  for  the  devil  and  his  angels.2  No  one  is 
ever  lost  because  he  cannot  do  good,  but  only 
because  he  will  not  do  what  he  can. 

Christ  recognizes  the  undoubted  truth  which  Christ  on 
lies  in  the  doctrine  of  heredity;  but  He  ex- 
poses, and  almost  ridicules,  the  false  and 
fatal  extremes  to  which  men  think  it  out. 
To  the  Jews,  who  claimed  that  because  they 
were  Abraham's  seed  they  must  be  free,  He 
showed  that  they  were  in  bondage  to  their 
own  sins.  They  had  chosen  to  break  away 
from  the  heredity  of  faith  and  righteousness, 
and  were  no  longer  the  true  children  of  Abra- 
ham. They  had  become  the  children  of  the 
devil,  because  they  had  "willed  to  do  his 
works."3  He  said  to  His  disciples  who  took 

!St.  Matt,  xxiii.  37.        2St.  Matt.  xxv.  34-41. 
8  St.  John  viii.  33-47. 


234  Liberty. 

up  the  cant  of  the  day  about  hereditary  sin  and 
punishment,  asked  whether  the  blind  man  or 
his  parents  had  sinned  that  he  was  born  blind, 
"Neither  hath  this  man  sinned,  nor  his  parents, 
but  that  the  works  of  God  should  be  made 
manife'st  in  him." 1  The  true  inheritance,  the 
deepest  inheritance  which  Jesus  recognizes  in 
the  human  race,  is  an  inheritance  from  God; 
a  nature  made  in  the  Divine  image,  spiritual, 
free,  responsible,  and  capable,  though  so  sadly 
marred,  though  so  far  astray,  of  returning  to 
communion  with  the  Heavenly  Father. 
The  weak-  Undoubtedly  Christ  perceived  and  taught 

ness  of  man.  .  *•«»      i  c  i     • 

the  immense  difficulty  of  being  good;  the  in- 
firmity which  long  centuries  of  sin  has  wrought 
into  the  very  fibres  of  the  soul;  the  awful 
and  almost  inaccessible  height  of  true  holi- 
ness; the  enormous  obstacles  which  lie  in  the 
way  of  attaining  it.  The  gate  is  strait,  and 
we  must  agonize  to  enter  in  by  it.  The 
road  is  steep,  and  we  must  toil  to  climb  it. 
"  How  hardly  shall  they  that  have  riches  enter 
into  the  kingdom  of  God."2  And  yet  "the 
kingdom  of  heaven  suffereth  violence,  and  men 
of  violence  take  it  by  force."8  There  is  an 
effort  which  succeeds  even  in  this  greatest 
of  all  endeavours,  not  in  its  own  strength, 

» St.  John  ix.  3.  2  St.  Mark  x.  23. 

•  St.  Matt.  xi.  12, 


Liberty  *         235 

but  because  it  is  sure  of  a  Divine   assistance.    The  grace 
"With    man   it   is    impossible,  but   not    with  °' 
God."1      To  the  human   will,   enfeebled    and 
corrupted,  so  that  it  is  like  a  sick  man,  barely 
able  to  turn  himself  upon  his  couch,  and  look 
and  long  and  cry  for  help,  three  great  sources 
of  strength  are  always  open  and  accessible. 

The  first  is  prayer.  "  Men  ought  always  to  Prayer. 
pray,  and  not  to  faint."2  How  sweet  and 
serene  is  the  voice  that  rings  through  the  vain 
disputations  and  doubtful  wranglings  of  the 
scribes  and  Pharisees,  and  calls  every  sinful 
soul  to  pray !  Pray !  you  may  not  be  able  to 
realize  your  own  ideal,  but  you  can  ask  God 
to  help  you  hold  fast  to  it  and  struggle  towards 
it.  Pray ! 

"  More  things  are  wrought  by  prayer 
Than  this  world  dreams  of."  8 

Pray  I  For  God  is  not  deaf,  nor  sleeping,  nor 
gone  upon  a  journey ;  He  has  not  bound  you 
to  an  inexorable  fate  and  bound  Himself  not  to 
interfere  with  it.  Pray  !  The  liberty  of  your 
own  soul,  and  the  liberty  of  God  Himself,  dwells 
in  that  word ;  for  when  you  stretch  your  feeble 
hand  to  Him,  a  Divine  hand  will  meet  it,  and 

i  St.  Mark  x.  27.  2  St.  Luke  xviii.  1. 

8  Tennyson,  The  Passing  of  Arthur. 


236 


Liberty 


The  Holy 
Spirit. 


Christ  our 
Helper. 


break  your  fetters,  and  lift  you  out  of  darkness 
and  death  into  life  and  light. 

The  second  source  of  strength  is  the  Holy 
Spirit.  It  is  inconceivable,  morally  impossible, 
that  there  should  be  such  a  Spirit,  and  yet  that 
His  influence  should  be  withheld  from  those 
who  need  and  implore  it.  "If  ye  then,  being 
evil,  know  how  to  give  good  gifts  unto  your 
children,  how  much  more  shall  your  heavenly 
Father  give  the  Holy  Spirit  unto  them  that 
ask  Him."i 

The  third  source  of  strength  is  Christ  Him- 
self. Does  the  sense  of  past  guilt  stand  in  the 
way  of  future  effort  ?  He  says,  "  I  have  power 
on  earth  to  forgive  sins."  2  Does  the  soul  feel 
dead  and  hopeless  under  the  burden  of  evil 
habits  ?  He  says,  "  I  came  that  they  may  have 
life,  and  may  have  it  abundantly."3  Do  the 
works  of  a  true  and  vital  righteousness  seem 
far  beyond  our  power?  He  says,  "Without  Me 
ye  can  do  nothing ; "  4  but,  "  Lo,  I  am  with  you 
alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world."  5  "  He 
that  believeth  on  Me,  the  works  that  I  do  shall 
he  do  also,  and  greater  works  than  these  shall  he 
do,  because  I  go  unto  the  Father."6  The  whole 


1  St.  Luke  xi.  13. 

2  St.  Mark  ii.  10. 

3  St.  John  x.  10. 


*  St.  John  xv.  5. 

6  St.  Matt,  xxviii.  20. 

6  St.  John  xiv.  12. 


Liberty  237 

life  of  Christ  is  summed  up  in  the  words,  "  But 
as  many  as  received  Him,  to  them  gave  He  power 
to  become  the  sons  of  God."  l 

But  this  receiving,  we  need  to  remember  and   The  way  of 
,  .  .,  .  deliverance. 

assert  again  and  again,  is  not  a  passive  thing. 

It  is  an  action  of  the  soul,  the  opening  of  a  door 
within  the  heart,  the  welcoming  of  a  heavenly 
master.  God  does  not  save  men  as  a  watch- 
maker who  repairs  and  sets  a  watch,  but  as  a 
King  who  recalls  his  servants  to  their  duty,  as 
a  Father  who  makes  new  revelations  of  His  love 
to  draw  His  lost  children  back  to  Himself.  The 
dogmas  of  the  schools  in  regard  to  the  working 
out  of  what  they  call  the  scheme  of  redemption 
sound  like  the  creak  and  rattle  of  some  vast 
machine.  The  doctrine  of  Christ  is  like  the 
soft  breath  of  spring,  evoking  the  songs  of  birds 
and  the  unfolding  of  new  life.  'No  fiery  chariot 
of  grace  swoops  down  to  snatch  men  to  glory. 
But  a  living  Messenger  comes  forth  from  God 
to  ask  men  to  turn  and  walk  back  with  Him  to 
their  soul's  home.  The  invitation  itself  is  a 
guarantee  of  the  power  to  accept  it.  With  au- 
thority Christ  commanded  the  winds  and  the  sea 
and  they  obeyed  Him.  But  with  gracious  plead- 
ing He  invited  the  hearts  of  men,  and  those  that 
were  willing  gladly  heard  and  followed  Him. 
i  St.  John  i.  12. 


238 


Liberty 


Qod  helps 
those  who 
help  them- 
selves. 


Christus 
Liberator. 


"If  any  man  wills  to  come  after  Me,"  a — that  is 
the  prelude  of  His  message.  He  offers  a  leader- 
ship to  men  who  can  follow,  a  mastership  to 
men  who  can  obey.  Out  of  this  first  movement 
He  promises  to  guide  and  direct  the  whole  de- 
velopment of  the  new  life,  —  not  a  passive  life 
of  retirement,  of  ascetic  meditation,  of  reflec- 
tion upon  secret  truth,  —  but  an  active  life  of 
service,  of  warfare  against  evil  in  the  world,  a 
life  which  translates  truth  into  conduct. 

Contrast  the  religion  of  Jesus  in  this  respect 
with  the  Oriental  religions,  and  with  those 
forms  of  Christianity  which  have  borrowed  the 
garments  of  Buddha  and  speak  with  the  accent 
of  Mahomet.  They  despise  and  slight  per- 
sonality. Christ  respects  and  emphasizes  it. 
They  aim  to  reduce  and  evaporate  responsi- 
bility. Christ  aims  to  deepen  and  increase 
it.  They  point  forward  to  a  blank  Nirvana 
in  which  the  individual  is  lost  and  absorbed, 
or  a  Paradise  in  which  he  is  forever  lapped  in 
sensual  ease  and  pleasure.  Christ  speaks  of 
the  perfecting  of  the  individual  through  the 
Divine  communion  and  service  on  earth,  and 
his  entrance  in  heaven  upon  a  new  stage  of 
the  same  communion,  the  same  service,  — 
"not  in  a  blessed  idleness,  but  in  an  exalted 
1  St.  Matt.  xvi.  24. 


Liberty  239 

kingly  work  and  activity."  And  the  entrance 
to  this  kingdom  on  earth,  the  continuance  in 
its  realm  of  liberty,  the  attainment  of  its  final 
glory,  are  all  through  an  act  of  the  will.  The 
freedom  which  originated  in  God  is  only  to  be 
preserved  by  returning  to  God  and  abiding  in 
Him. 

"  Our  wills  are  ours,  we  know  not  how ; 
Our  wills  are  ours,  to  make  them  Thine." l 

That  is  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  That  is  the 
truth  which,  when  it  comes  to  men,  makes 
them  and  keeps  them  free. 


IV 


It  is  impossible  that  we   should  be  faithful  The  age 

needs  thi 
message. 


preachers  of  Christ  to  the  present  age,  unless 


we  preach  this  truth.  There  may  have  been 
ages  in  which  it  was  important  to  dwell  upon 
other  sides  and  aspects  of  the  manifold  reality 
of  the  spiritual  world.  But  to-day  this  is  the 
important  side;  this  is  the  aspect  which  de- 
mands a  clear  recognition  and  an  unfaltering 
proclamation  by  those  who  mean  to  be  true  to 
Christ  and  loyal  to  the  needs  of  humanity.  I 
do  not  believe  that  there  is  a  single  passage  in 
the  Old  Testament  which  contradicts  Christ's 
1  Tennyson,  In  Memoriam,  Proem. 


240  Liberty 

doctrine  of  the  real  liberty  of  the  soul.  But 
if  there  were  such  a  passage,  I  would  leave  it 
forever  alone,  as  belonging  to  that  knowledge 
which  was  in  part,  and  which  was  done  away 
when  that  which  was  perfect  had  come.  I  do 
not  believe  that  there  is  a  single  word  in  the 
St.  Paul  on  writings  of  St.  Paul  which  stands  against  this 
freedom.  doctrine  of  the  real  liberty  of  the  soul.  I 
cut  loose  from  the  false  interpretations  which 
men  have  read  into  his  words.  I  take  the 
light  of  Christ's  teaching  in  my  hand,  and  I 
go  back  to  interpret  by  that  light  the  teach- 
ings of  the  great  Epistle  to  the  Romans  with 
its  glorious  revelation  of  "the  mystery  which 
hath  been  kept  in  silence  through  times  eter- 
nal, but  now  is  manifested,  and  by  the  Scriptures 
of  the  prophets,  according  to  the  commandment 
of  the  eternal  God,  is  made  known  unto  all 
the  nations  unto  obedience  of  faith.111  I  hear 
again  the  cry  of  the  struggling,  labouring,  con- 
quering apostle :  "  To  will  is  present  with  me, 
but  to  do  that  which  is  good  is  not.  ...  O 
wretched  man  that  I  am,  who  shall  deliver  me 
out  of  the  body  of  this  death?  I  thank  God 
through  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord;112  and  I  know 
that  St.  Paul  also  was  a  believer  in  the  free- 
dom of  the  will,  and  that  he  received  this 
i  Rom.  xvi.  26.  2  Rom.  vii.  18,  24,  25. 


Liberty  241 

gospel  and  the  power  to  fulfil  it,  through  the 
proclamation  of  liberty  in  Jesus  Christ. 

"  This  matter  of  free-will,"  wrote  one  of  the  Free-will 
most  orthodox  of  theologians,  but  a  few  years  question.  '* 
before  his  death,  "underlies  everything.  If 
you  bring  it  to  question,  it  is  infinitely  more 
than  Calvinism.  ...  I  believe  in  Calvinism, 
and  I  say  that  free-will  stands  before  Calvin- 
ism. Everything  is  gone  if  free-will  is  gone  ; 
the  moral  system  is  gone,  if  free-will  is  gone  ; 
you  cannot  escape  except  by  Materialism  on 
the  one  hand  or  by  Pantheism  on  the  other. 
Hold  hard  therefore  to  the  doctrine  of  free- 
will."1 

Yes,  and  we  may  say  more  than  this.  Not 
only  is  the  moral  system  gone,  but  the  great 
attraction  of  Christ  is  gone,  the  power  of  His 
gospel  to  liberate  men  is  gone,  if  free-will  is 
gone. 

The  age  has  hypnotized  itself.     It  is  drift-   The  age  has 
ing  steadily  towards  fatalism.     It  denies  free-  ^if. 
dom,  and  therefore   it  is   not  free.      It  is   in 
bondage  to  its  own  doubt.     It  is  enslaved  by 
its  own  denial.     If  there  is  such  a  thing  as 
liberty,  it  can  only  be  developed,  as  everything 
else  has  been  developed,  by  action,  by  exercise. 

1  A.  A.  Hodge,  Popular  Lectures  on  Theological  Themes 
(Philadelphia,  1887),  p.  184. 


242 


Liberty 


We  must 
proclaim 
liberty  in 
Christ. 


Life  is  self-change  to  meet  environment.  Lib- 
erty is  self-exertion  to  unfold  the  soul.  The 
law  of  natural  selection  is  that  those  who  use 
a  faculty  shall  expand  it,  but  those  who  use  it 
not  shall  lose  it.  Religion  is  life,  and  it  must 
grow  under  the  laws  of  life.  Faith  is  simply 
the  assertion  of  spiritual  freedom  ;  it  is  the 
first  adventure  of  the  soul.  Make  that  ad- 
venture towards  God,  make  that  adventure 
towards  Christ,  and  the  soul  will  know  that  it 
is  alive.  So  it  enters  upon  that  upward  course 
which  leads  through  the  liberty  of  the  sons  of 
God  to  the  height  of  heaven, 

"  Where  love  is  an  unerring  light 
And  joy  its  own  security." 1 

This  is  the  truth  with  which  we  are  to  go 
out  a-gospelling  in  this  age  of  doubt.  We  are 
to  tell  men  that  though  much  has  been  deter- 
mined for  them  by  causes  beyond  their  control, 
—  their  circumstances,  their  talents,  their  facul- 
ties, —  one  thing  has  not  been  determined,  and 
that  is  what  they  will  do  with  them.  Much  has 
been  ordained  before  their  birth,  —  their  nation- 
ality, their  family,  their  station  in  life,  —  but 
one  thing  has  not  been  ordained,  and  that  is 
whether  they  are  to  move  from  this  starting- 
1  Wordsworth,  Ode  to  Duty. 


Liberty  243 

point  towards  life  or  towards  death.  They 
may  be  like  men  sunken  in  a  nightmare  dream 
of  helplessness,  muttering  in  their  sleep,  "  If  I 
am  to  be  saved,  I  shall  be  saved ;  if  I  am  to  be 
lost,  I  shall  be  lost,"  —  but  we  must  cry  to  them 
with  the  voice  of  the  Spirit :  "  Awake,  thou 
that  sleepest,  and  arise  from  the  dead,  and 
Christ  shall  give  thee  light." 


VII 
SOVEREIGNTY 


"  I  say  to  thee,  do  thou  repeat 
To  the  first  man  thou  mayest  meet 
In  lane,  highway,  or  open  street  — 

**  That  he  and  we  and  all  men  move 
Under  a  canopy  of  love, 
As  broad  as  the  blue  sky  above ; 

"  That  doubt  and  trouble,  fear  and  pain 
And  anguish,  all  are  shadows  vain, 
That  death  itself  shall  not  remain; 

u  That  weary  deserts  we  may  tread, 
A  dreary  labyrinth  may  thread, 
Through  dark  ways  underground  be  led ; 

'*  Yet  if  we  will  one  Guide  obey, 
The  dreariest  path,  the  darkest  way, 
Shall  issue  out  in  heavenly  day ; 

a  And  we,  on  divers  shores  now  cast, 
Shall  meet,  our  perilous  voyage  past, 
All  in  our  Father's  house  at  last." 

—  RICHARD  CHENEVIX  TRENCH, 
The  Kingdom  of  God. 


VII 
SOVEREIGNTY 

THE  questions  about  the  world  which  science  T 
considers  and  answers,  all  have  to  do  with  science, 
secondary  causes.  Beyond  that  sphere  she  does 
not  need  to  go,  and  within  that  sphere  her  wis- 
dom is  sufficient.  We  come  to  her  like  curious 
children.  We  "want  to  see  the  wheels  go 
round."  We  want  to  know  what  the  wheels 
are  made  of.  She  tells  us,  and  there  she  stops. 
All  that  we  have  a  right  to  ask  of  her  is  that 
she  shall  be  true  to  facts,  and  that  she  shall 
confine  herself  to  them.  When  the  astronomer 
Laplace  was  reproached  for  not  mentioning  God 
in  his  treatise  on  the  dynamics  of  the  solar 
system,  he  answered,  "I  had  no  need  of  that 
hypothesis."  And  this  reply  was  just,  as  Mr. 
John  Fiske  has  pointed  out,  because  "  in  order 
to  give  a  specific  explanation  of  any  single 
group  of  phenomena,  it  would  not  do  to  ap- 
peal to  divine  action,  which  is  equally  the 
source  of  all  phenomena. " l 

1  Christian  Literature,  January,  1896,  "  The  Everlasting 
Eeality  of  Religion,"  p.  306. 

247 


248  Sovereignty 

The  great  But  the  moment  we  take  this  reasonable 
beyond*1*  &  an(^  m°dest  position  (and  it  is  a  great  pity 
them.  that  theology  has  not  been  more  ready  to  take 

it),  we  perceive  that  curiosity  in  regard  to 
single  groups  of  phenomena  by  no  means  satis- 
fies or  exhausts  the  activity  of  the  questioning 
spirit  in  man.  There  is  a  deeper  curiosity  in 
regard  to  the  relation  of  these  single  groups 
of  phenomena  to  each  other,  and  to  ourselves, 
and  to  the  possibility  of  a  meaning,  a  purpose, 
an  end,  underlying  all  things  and  all  their 
workings.  Out  of  this  deeper  curiosity  rise 
the  questions  which  are  most  urgent  and  vital, 
—  questions  which,  when  we  consider  them  ab- 
stractly, are  philosophical,  and  condition  the 
unity  of  our  intellectual  life;  but  when  we  con- 
sider them  personally,  they  are  religious,  and 
upon  their  answer  our  spiritual  peace  and  moral 
action  absolutely  depend.  How  are  we  to  think 
about  the  things  that  we  know  ?  What  are  we 
to  believe  in  regard  to  the  things  that  science 
tells  us  we  cannot  know,  but  which  we  still 
feel  are  necessary  conditions  of  all  intelligent 
and  right  conduct  ?  Is  there  an  invisible  unity 
beneath  all  the  visible  diversity  of  phenomena  ? 
What  is  the  nature  of  that  unity,  personal  or 
impersonal,  conscious  or  unconscious  ?  Is  there 
anything  behind  the  mechanical  working  of 


Sovereignty  ^       249 

the  world,  now  so  wonderfully  explained,  which 
corresponds  to  what  there  is  in  us  when  we 
make  and  use  a  machine  or  an  instrument, 
when  we  plant  and  cultivate  a  garden,  or  when 
we  select  and  train  a  noble  race  of  animals? 
Is  there  a  final  cause  towards  which  things 
work  together,  and  a  supreme  power  which 
guides  them  to  that  end? 

This  is  the  question   of   sovereignty.      We   The  ques- 
can  no  more  help  asking  it  than  we  can  help 
thinking. 

We  are  in  the  world  like  voyagers  on  a  ship. 
We  inquire  what  the  ship  is  made  of;  and 
science  tells  us,  —  iron  and  wood.  And  what 
makes  it  float  ?  The  buoyancy  of  the  air  which 
it  contains.  And  what  makes  it  go?  Steam. 
And  what  makes  the  steam  ?  The  heat  of  the 
furnace.  Then,  if  we  are  sufficiently  inter- 
ested, science  takes  us  down  into  the  engine- 
room,  and  shows  us  all  the  condensers  and 
pistons  and  cranks  and  wheels,  more  fully  than 
they  have  ever  been  shown  before  ;  and  we  are 
amazed  and  profoundly  grateful.  We  come  up 
again  into  the  light  of  day.  We  look  into  the 
overarching  heaven,  the  home  of  sunshine  and 
storm,  the  deep  mother  of  light  and  darkness. 
We  look  out  upon  the  great  and  wide  sea, 
full  of  mystery  and  terror.  New  questionings 


250  Sovereignty 

Has  the          spring  to  our  lips.     Where  is  the  ship  going? 

captain?  ^s  there  a  captain  on  board  ?  Does  he  know, 
does  he  care,  what  is  to  become  of  it?  Is  he 
wise,  is  he  faithful,  is  he  a  good  captain  ?  Can 
he  direct  the  vessel  through  tempests  and  dan- 
gers? Can  he  tell  us  how  to  work  with  him, 
how  to  act  in  times  of  peril  and  perplexity? 
Can  we  be  sure  of  him,  can  we  trust  him  ? 

Doubt  Now  to  this  questioning,  scepticism  gives  a 

answers,  . 

jy0>  reply  of  desperate  uncertainty  ;  and  positivism 

answers  with  a  stern  and  sullen,  No  !  The 
world  is  a  derelict  vessel,  and  we  are  master- 
less  and  lost  mariners.  This  answer  has  been 
expressed  by  a  French  poet  in  powerful  and 
pathetic  verse. 

"  Jouet  de  1'ouragan,  qui  1'emporte  et  le  mene, 
Encombre  de  tresors  et  d'agres  submerges, 
Ce  navire  perdu,  mais  c'est  le  nef  humairie, 
Et  nous  sommes  les  nauf rages. 

"  L'equipage  affole  manoeuvre  en  vain  dans  1'ombre ; 

L'Elpouvante  est  k  bord,  le  Desespoir,  le  Deuil ; 
Assise  au  gouvernail,  la  Fatalite  sombre 
Le  dirige  vers  un  ecueil." 1 

But  Christ  gives  a  very  different  answer. 
It  seems  as  if  His  very  words  were  chosen  to 
contradict  this  view  of  life  as  a  helpless,  hope- 

1  L.  Ackerman,  Ma  Vie,  Poesies,  etc.  (Paris,  1885),  "Le 
Cri,"  p.  180. 


Sovereignty  ^          251 

less  voyage,  and  humanity  as   a   shipwrecked  Christ 
race.      For  what   is   it   that   He   says   to  His 
disciples  as  they  look  out  upon  the  mystery  of 
existence  ? 

"  Seek  not  what  ye  shall  eat,  and  what  ye 
shall  drink,  neither  be  ye  as  a  ship  that  is  tossed 
on  the  waves  of  a  tempestuous  sea  (/-i?)  nerewpC- 
£eo-0e),  for  your  Father  knoweth  that  ye  have 
need  of  these  things." l 

The  vessel  is  not  driving  masterless  over  the 
ocean.  The  Captain  is  on  board.  He  is  God. 
He  is  also  our  Father.  For  all  who  trust  and 
serve  Him,  it  is  a  sure  voyage,  a  certain  port, 
a  safe  harbour. 


The  doctrine  of  the  presence  and  sovereignty  The 
of  God  in  His  world,  in  one  form  or  another,  is 
essential  to  the  validity  of  any  reasoning  which 
attempts  to  go  beyond  the  mere  appearance  of 
things.  Without  it  we  find  ourselves,  as  one 
has  well  said,  "put  to  permanent  intellectual 
confusion."  Without  it  the  world  lies  before 
us,  as  Pope  wrote  in  the  first  draft  of  his  Essay 
on  Man,  — 

u  A  mighty  maze,  and  all  without  a  plan." 
i  St.  Luke  xii.  29. 


252 


Sovereignty 


Christ's 
view  of  it. 


Contrasted 
with  other 
views. 


And  if  we  follow  the  poet  in  that  cold  philo- 
sophical deism  which  led  him  to  revise  his  fa- 
mous line  so  that  it  now  reads 

"  A  mighty  maze,  but  not  without  a  plan," l 

we  are  still  in  the  dark,  still  confused  and 
hopeless,  unless  we  go  further  and  learn  enough 
of  Him  who  made  the  plan,  to  trust  Him  even 
when  we  cannot  perfectly  understand  His  work- 
ing, and  to  confide  absolutely  in  "His  most 
holy,  wise,  and  powerful  preserving  and  govern- 
ing all  His  creatures  and  all  their  actions."  2 

This  is  what  Christ  gives  us  :  a  view  of  God 
in  His  world  which  requires  faith  to  accept  it, 
but  which  when  it  is  accepted,  satisfies  the  rea- 
son and  the  heart  better  than  any  other  view, 
clears  away  many  of  the  intellectual  and  moral 
difficulties  which  beset  us,  and  becomes  the  in- 
ward source  not  of  doubt  and  distress,  but  of 
certainty  and  peace. 

This  is  not  true,  we  must  admit,  of  some  of 
the  forms  in  which  the  doctrine  of  divine  sov- 
ereignty has  been  preached  in  Christ's  name. 
They  have  often  disregarded  the  facts  of  nat- 
ure. They  have  often  outraged  the  moral 
instincts  of  humanity.  They  have  created 
new  obstacles  to  faith.  They  have  driven  men 

1  Pope's  Essay  on  Man,  part  L,  line  6. 

2  The  Shorter  Catechism,  question  xi. 


. 

Sovereignty  253 

back  in  dumb  resentment  to  believe  in  the 
positivist's  "sombre  Fatality,"  rather  than  in 
an  absentee  God  who  has  foreordained,  by  one 
and  the  same  decree,  all  the  evil  and  all  the 
good,  all  the  sorrow  and  shame  and  suffering 
that  are  in  the  world. 

Not  so  with  Christ's  teaching.  It  is  sane 
and  sweet.  It  allays  resentment  and  begets 
serenity.  It  gives  a  reconciling,  harmonizing, 
atoning  view  of  God's  sovereignty.  And  if 
we  can  see  it  clearly  and  preach  it  faithfully, 
it  will  be  to-day,  as  it  was  in  His  day,  one  of 
the  great  attractions  of  the  gospel  for  an  age 
of  doubt. 

II 

Christ's   doctrine  of  the  divine  sovereignty  Christ's 

,     ,,       ,  ,          ,  Tj  ,  ,    ,  .,     doctrine  old 

was  both  old  and  new.  It  was  old  because  it  and  neWt 
recognized  the  truth,  uttered  so  magnificently 
by  prophets  and  psalmists,  of  God's  right  and 
power  to  rule  the  universe  which  He  has 
made.  "Thy  throne,  O  God,  is  for  ever  and 
ever."1  "The  Lord  hath  prepared  His  throne 
in  the  heavens  and  His  kingdom  ruleth  over 
all. "  2  "  He  doeth  according  to  His  will  in  the 
army  of  heaven,  and  among  the  inhabitants  of 
the  earth :  and  none  can  stay  His  hand,  or  say 
unto  Him,  What  doest  Thou  ?  "  3 
i  Psalm  xlv.  6.  *  Psaim  ciii.  19.  a  Damei  iv.  35. 


254 


Sovereignty 


A  simpler 
revelation. 


God  in  His 
world. 


But  Christ's  doctrine  was  new  because  it 
revealed  the  presence  of  the  sovereign  God  in 
the  physical  universe  more  simply,  more  natu- 
rally, more  intimately,  than  it  had  ever  been 
revealed  before.  How  gentle,  how  plain,  how 
mildly  luminous,  is  the  language  in  which 
Jesus  expresses  this  truth,  compared  with  the 
flashing,  rolling  speech  of  the  prophets !  He 
uses  the  words  of  common  life,  transfigured 
with  emotion,  —  the  language  of  lyric,  rather 
than  of  epic,  poetry. 

The  manifestations  of  divine  power  in  the 
Old  Testament  appear  chiefly  as  mighty  works, 
exceptional  forthputtings  of  supernal  force. 
It  seems  sometimes  as  if  they  came  from  a 
distance ;  as  if  God  had  withdrawn  from  the 
world  and  had  been  called  back  to  it  by  the 
peril  and  the  cry  of  His  people.  But  Christ 
would  teach  us  to  feel  that  He  has  never  gone 
away  for  an  instant.  He  is  always  here. 
Nothing  that  happens  is  hidden  from  Him. 
Nor  does  He  hide  Himself  from  any  who 
would  behold  Him.  We  may  see  Him  every 
day,  in  the  feeding  of  the  birds,  in  the  blos- 
soming of  the  flowers, 

"  And  every  wayside  bush  aflame  with  God." 

In  all  the  processes  of  nature  He  is  present 
and  sovereign. 


Sovereignty  255 

This  view  of  the  relation  of  God  to  the  ma-   ^e  divine 

.  ,  ,  i     .  IT  1-1     immanence. 

terial  world  is  not  external  and  mechanical. 
It  is  inward  and  vital.  God  has  not  made  the 
world  and  wound  it  up  and  left  it  to  run  by 
itself.  He  is  in  it,  as  really  as  a  man  is  in  the 
house  that  he  inhabits,  and  all  the  potencies 
that  move  and  animate  it  flow  directly  from 
Him.  The  Jews  thought  that  God  had  fabri- 
cated the  universe  in  six  days  and  sat  down  to 
rest  on  the  seventh,  laying  aside  His  work  as 
a  clock-maker  would  put  down  a  finished 
clock.  But  Christ  said,  "My  Father  worketh 
until  now,  and  I  work."1  Creation  is  not 
ended,  it  is  going  on  all  the  time.  Yesterday 
was  a  creative  day ;  and  so  is  to-day ;  and  so 
to-morrow  will  be.  The  divine  thought  is 
still  weaving  its  beautiful  garment  on  the 
roaring  loom  of  Time. 

But  God's  activity  in  the  world  is  not  ca-   The  divine 

,.         ,     ,  AT  orderliness. 

pricious  or  disorderly.  No  one  was  more  sen- 
sitive than  Jesus  to  "the  rhythmic  element 
in  nature,  —  the  flow  of  rivers,  the  procession 
of  stars,  the  antiphony  of  day  and  night,  the 
silent  but  inviolate  order  of  the  seasons."  2  It 
was  He  who  expressed  the  law  of  growth  : 

1  St.  John  v.  17. 

2  H.  W.  Mabie,  Essays  on  Nature  and  Culture  (New  York, 

,  p.  295. 


256  Sovereignty 

"first  the  blade,  then  the  ear,  and  after  that 
the  full  corn  in  the  ear."1  It  was  He  who 
suggested  the  analogy  of  natural  law  in  the 
spiritual  world,  apptying  the  figure  of  germi- 
nation to  His  own  death  and  resurrection  : 
"  Except  a  corn  of  wheat  fall  into  the  ground 
and  die,  it  abideth  alone ;  but  if  it  die,  it 
bringeth  forth  much  fruit."2  The  parables 
which  He  used  to  describe  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  were  drawn  from  nature  and  based  on 
law.  It  was  like  "leaven  which  a  woman 
took  and  hid  in  three  measures  of  meal  until 
the  whole  was  leavened,"  or  "like  a  grain  of 
mustard  seed,  which  a  man  took  and  sowed 
in  his  field  ;  which  indeed  is  the  least  of  all 
seeds,  but  when  it  is  grown  it  is  the  greatest 
among  herbs."3  He  taught  His  disciples  to 
look  upon  the  regular  and  steadfast  ordinances 
of  nature  as  the  proof  that  their  Heavenly 
Father  was  mindful  of  them  and  would  take 
care  of  them.  You  will  not  find  any  such  su- 
perfluous phrase  as  "  special  Providence  "  in  the 
teaching  of  Jesus.  His  thought  was  of  a  gen- 
eral and  universal  Providence,  wide  enough 
and  deep  enough  to  embrace  the  wants  of  all 
creatures  and  provide  for  them.  God's  chil- 

1  St.  Mark  iv.  28.        2  St.  John  xii.  24. 
«  St.  Matt.  xiii.  32,  33. 


Sovereignty  257 

dren  were  not  to  trust  in  miracles  and  marvels 
for  their  daily  bread  ;  they  were  not  to  be 
always  looking  and  calling  for  the  extraordi- 
nary,—  manna  from  the  sky,  water  from  the 
riven  rock.  They  were  to  rest  rather  upon 
the  course  of  nature  in  quiet  confidence,  and 
work  with  it  in  cheerful  joy,  knowing  that 
He  who  clothes  the  grass  of  the  field  will  much 
more  clothe  them,1  —  and  by  the  same  power 
working  in  the  same  way. 

Yet   Jesus  did  not  think  of  God  as  having  Miracles  not 
exhausted   all   possible  modes  of   His  activity  ^tire. 
in  those  which  are  familiar  to  us.      His  pres- 
ence in  the  world  is  of   such  a  personal  kind 
that  it  necessarily  brings  with  it  the  power  of 
direct,  personal,  infinitely  varied  action.     Out 
of   this  power  spring   those  strange  signs  and 
wondrous  works  which  we  call  miracles.     Jesus 
never  said  that  they  were  against  nature.     He 
never  even  said  that   they  were  supernatural. 
He  claimed   only  that   they  were  proofs  of   a 
divine  mission,  because  they  were  such  works 
as   could   only   come   from   God.     They   were ' 
signs,  just  as  all  uncommon  and  extraordinary  Signs  of 
acts  are  signs.     But  signs  of  what?     Of   per-  PersonalitV' 
sonality,  of  that  power  of  choice  in  modes  of 

i  St.  Matt.  vi.  30. 


258  Sovereignty 

action  which  is  the  essential  attribute  of  a 
free  spirit.  They  were  wrought  in  order 
that  men  might  believe,  not  in  order  that 
they  might  be  astonished;  and  just  as  truly 
in  order  that  they  might  believe  in  the  order 
of  nature  as  in  the  Person  who  upholds  it  by 
His  presence. 

TJie  reign  of       "An   energy,"   says   Mr.   Ruskin,    "may  be 
faWt  natural    without    being     normal,    and     divine 

without  being  constant."  Jesus  did  not  teach 
the  reign  of  law.  He  taught  the  reign  of  God 
through  law.  And  in  order  that  men  might 
be  sure  that  the  law  did  not  bind  God  like  a 
chain,  but  freely  expressed  His  sovereign  will, 
it  was  given  unto  Jesus  to  show  men  those 
rare  works,  unique  and  transcendent,  like 
strokes  of  genius,  which  reveal,  as  if  by  flashes 
of  light,  the  true  relation  between  the  sover- 
eign God  and  the  universe  which  He  is  mak- 
ing and  ruling. 

The  secret  It  is  always  to  this  personal  God  that  Jesus 
would  direct  the  thoughts  and  confident  affec- 
tions of  men.  How  is  it  possible  for  any  one  to 
miss  His  meaning,  and  translate  it  into  some- 
thing entirely  different,  as  Matthew  Arnold 
does  in  his  misinterpretation  of  what  he  calls 
"the  secret  of  Jesus"  ?  It  is  not  merely  the  joy 


Sovereignty  259 

and  peace  of  self-renunciation  that  Jesus  sets 
forth  to  His  disciples.  It  is  the  inward  qui-  Trust  in  a 
etude  and  rest  of  self-surrender  to  a  loving 
Father  who  is  also  the  Mighty  God.  And  it 
is  not  from  the  sense  of  His  resistless  power, 
but  from  the  consciousness  of  His  love,  of 
His  Fatherhood,  that  peace  comes.  "  Yea, 
Father,  for  so  it  was  well-pleasing  in  Thy 
sight."1  "Father,  all  things  are  possible  unto 
Thee ;  remove  this  cup  from  Me :  howbeit 
not  what  I  will,  but  what  Thou  wilt."2 
"  Father,  into  Thy  hands  I  commit  My  spirit."  3 
This  is  the  secret  of  Jesus.  He  does  not  teach 
bare  sovereignty  to  which  we  must  yield  be- 
cause it  is  irresistible.  He  teaches  sover- 
eignty of  a  certain  kind,  —  the  sovereignty 
of  a  Father,  who  is  as  much  better,  as  He  is 
more  powerful,  than  all  earthly  parents  or 
rulers,  and  who  will  never  forsake  His  world, 
nor  suffer  His  children  to  slip  from  His  mighty 
hand. 


m 


But  sovereignty  of  this  kind  necessarily  im- 
plies distinctions  in  the  manner  of  its  exercise. 
It  cannot  possibly  be  conceived  of  in  terms  of 

1  St.  Matt.  xi.  26.    2  St.  Mark  xiv.  36.    8  St.  Luke  xxiii.  46, 


260  Sovereignty 

The  highest    any  single  force  or  confined  to  any  one  mode  of 
sovereignty    operation.     It  must  be  flexible  and  discriminat- 


ing.  It  must  include  within  itself  as  many 
forms  of  rule  as  there  are  forms  of  being  under 
its  dominion.  What,  for  example,  should  we 
say  of  a  king  who  had  but  one  way  of  dealing 
with  all  his  subjects,  young  and  old,  wise  and 
ignorant,  loyal  and  disloyal,  and  who  treated 
his  servants  under  precisely  the  same  condi- 
tions as  his  horses  and  his  chariots  ?  Or  what 
should  we  say  of  a  father  who  attempted  to  reg- 
ulate and  rule  his  children  without  reference  to 
their  character,  and  who  made  no  distinction 
between  them  and  the  furniture  of  his  house  ? 
Yet  this,  in  effect,  is  the  theory  of  the  divine 
sovereignty  which  has  frequently  been  set  forth 
by  theologians  as  if  it  were  the  only  one  which 
did  justice  to  the  glory  of  God. 

A  lower  «  The  will  of  God,"  according  to  this  theory, 

sovereignty    "  *s  ^ne  irresistible  force.     It  is  the  source  of 

Mechanical.   all  things,  all  persons,  all  events.     From  it  they 

all  proceed,  under  it  they  all  act,  by  an  invari- 

able  necessity.     This  will   has  already  deter- 

mined from  all  eternity  everything  that  comes 

to  pass.     Every  character  in   the  world,  like 

every  rock  and  every  plant,  is  just  what  God 

willed  it  to  be.     Everything  that  happens,  hap- 

pens because  He  willed  it  and  precisely  as  He 


Sovereignty  261 

willed  it.  The  life  of  mankind  is  far  from 
being  in  any  sense  a  voyage,  an  adventure,  a 
probation.  It  is  simply  the  process  of  printing 
a  history  which  has  already  been  written  and 
set  in  type  down  to  the  last  letter.  The  great 
press  is  in  motion.  Our  souls  are  the  blank 
pages.  On  one  is  printed  a  foreordained  prayer. 
On  another  a  foreordained  blasphemy.  Death 
is  the  folding  knife.  Judgment  is  the  act  of 
binding,  in  which  the  fair  pages  will  be  pre- 
served and  the  foul  pages  rejected  and  burned. 
The  sovereignty  of  God  is  exercised  in  seeing 
that  the  book  goes  through  the  press  exactly  as 
it  was  written,  without  the  addition  or  sub- 
traction of  a  single  syllable  of  the  foreordained 
text." 

But  surely,  even  if  this  theory  were  true  and  The  lower 
could  be  proved,  it  is  not  of  a  nature  to  give 
aid  and  comfort  to  those  who  are  zealous  for 
the  glory  of  God.  It  does  not  really  exalt  and 
magnify  the  divine  sovereignty,  but  narrows 
and  degrades  it.  It  does  not  call  for  the  per- 
fect wisdom  and  unlimited  resources  of  a  potent 
Ruler  able  to  meet  emergencies,  to  overcome 
oppositions,  to  guide  and  direct  intelligent  and 
free  subjects  like  Himself,  and  to  conduct  a 
high  enterprise,  through  all  the  difficulties  that 
may  arise,  to  a  successful  end.  It  calls  for 


262  Sovereignty 

qualities  of  a  lower  kind  and  a  strictly  limited 
scope ;  the  exact  knowledge  and  the  applied 
strength  of  a  skilful  machinist ;  not  the  broad 
intelligence,  the  swift  genius,  the  inexhaustible 
patience,  and  the  triumphant  personal  influ- 
ence of  a  great  Captain,  a  Master  and  Lord  of 
men. 

Which  kind  it  is  conceivable,  of  course,  that  God  might 
chosen  f  have  chosen  to  create  a  universe  in  which  His 
sovereignty  should  be  exercised  in  this  one  un- 
varying line  of  foreordained  necessity.  Being 
supreme,  He  has  both  the  right  and  the  power 
to  make  such  a  sphere,  or  spheres,  for  the  rev- 
elation of  His  attributes  as  may  please  Him. 
But  it  is  not  humanly  conceivable  that  He 
should  have  made  this  particular  choice  which 
is  ascribed  to  Him  for  His  own  glory.  If  He 
had  chosen  this  kind  of  a  universe,  so  far  as  we 
can  see,  it  must  have  lowered  and  hidden  His 
glory.  It  must  have  left  Him  with  a  field  in 
which  the  highest  qualities  of  personality  could 
not  possibly  be  exercised.  It  must  have  made 
all  subsequent  choice,  and  all  approval  or 
disapproval,  and  all  truly  moral  government 
impossible.  The  existence  of  rewards  and  pun- 
ishments, the  sense  of  merit  or  demerit  among 
the  creatures  of  such  a  world,  would  be  inex- 
plicable. Nay  more,  it  would  be  a  cruel  delu- 


Sovereignty  263 

sion,  which,  since  it  must  come  like  everything 
else,  according  to  this  theory,  from  the  will  of 
the  Maker,  would  reflect  a  dark  shadow  of  dis- 
credit upon  His  moral  character.  To  claim 
that  this  sense  of  responsibility,  like  all  other 
parts  of  the  system,  may  be  a  necessity,  a  legal 
fiction  which  is  essential  to  the  working  of  a 
scheme  far  above  our  comprehension  and  there- 
fore above  our  judgment,  makes  it  more  awful, 
but  not  more  admirable.  If  there  is  any  valid- 
ity whatever  in  our  moral  instincts,  we  need  not 
hesitate  to  say,  that  from  our  present  point  of 
view,  which  is  for  us  the  only  one  attainable, 
this  theory  of  the  absolute  and  unconditional 
sovereignty  of  God,  exercised  by  one  law  of 
necessity  over  all  creatures,  is  so  far  from  being 
for  God's  glory  that  it  is  apparently  for  His 
shame  and  dishonour. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  has  been,  and  still  is,  Thediffi~ 
the  most  fertile  mother  of  doubts.  "A  uni- 
verse  in  which  all  the  power  was  on  the  side  of 
the  creator,  and  all  the  morality  on  the  side  of 
creation,  would  be  one  compared  with  which 
the  universe  of  naturalism  would  shine  out  as  a 
paradise  indeed." l  The  idea  of  an  irresponsible 
God  ruling  by  an  eternal  and  inflexible  fiat 
over  responsible  men,  is  a  moral  nightmare, 
1  Foundations  of  Belief,  p.  326. 


264  Sovereignty 

under  which  humanity  groans,  and  from  which 
it  struggles  to  awake,  even  though  it  should 
have  to  open  its  eyes  upon  the  blank  darkness 
of  an  unsearchable  night.  Between  the  un- 
knowable God  of  agnosticism  and  the  unlov- 
able God  of  absolutism,  there  is  indeed  little 
to  choose.  But  the  choice,  such  as  it  is,  lies 
on  the  side  of  agnosticism.  It  is  unspeak- 
ably better  to  doubt  God's  personality,  His 
supremacy,  His  very  being,  than  it  is  to 
doubt  His  eternal  goodness  and  His  moral 
integrity. 

Jesus  de-  But  the  teaching  of  Jesus  is  designed  and 

from  them,  fitted  to  deliver  us,  if  we  will  accept  it,  from 
both  of  these  doubts.  He  reveals  a  God  who 
is  not  only  Lord  of  all,  but  who  exercises  His 
sovereignty  in  discretion,  in  justice,  and  in 
love.  He  does  not  look  upon  all  His  creatures 
with  the  same  eyes.  He  discriminates,  He 
distinguishes,  He  has  regard  to  their  differ- 
ences of  nature  and  character.  The  human 
soul  is  of  more  value  to  Him  than  many  spar- 
rows.1 How  much  is  a  man  better  than  a 
sheep  ?  2  By  so  much  as  he  is  more  like  God, 
spiritual,  free,  responsible,  immortal.  These 
qualities,  which  God  Himself  has  created,  God 
Himself  respects.  Every  word  of  Jesus  takes  it 
1  St.  Matt.  x.  31.  2  St.  Matt.  xii.  12. 


Sovereignty  ^        265 

for  granted  that  God  is  not  an  infinite  Auto-  God  is  a 
crat,  a  hard  master,  reaping  where  He  has  not 
sown,  and  gathering  where  He  has  not  strewed, 
but  a  fair  and  equitable  Lord,  who  takes  into 
consideration  all  the  conditions  of  His  subjects 
and  renders  unto  all  their  dues.  The  forces  of 
nature  obey  His  will  inevitably,  and  for  them 
there  is  neither  praise  nor  blame.  The  souls 
of  men  are  invited  to  love  Him,  and  com- 
manded to  serve  Him,  but  they  are  left  free  to 
choose  whether  they  will  obey  or  disobey,  and 
upon  their  choice  the  approval  and  blessing  of 
God  depend. 

Who  can  question  for  a  moment  that  this  is   The  divine 

.T          .  e   ii         T    •  •  1-1  omnipotence 

the  view  of  the  divine  sovereignty  which  un- 


derlies  all  the  parables  of  Christ  ?  The  omnip-  in  action. 
otence  which  He  teaches  is  not  sheer,  absolute, 
unconditioned.  It  is  a  self-restrained  power. 
It  is  able  to  limit  itself,  to  act  in  such  a  way 
and  under  such  conditions  as  God  chooses  to 
create.  If  He  could  not  do  this,  He  would  not 
be  truly  omnipotent.  If  there  were  but  one 
method  in  which  He  could  manifest  His  will, 
and  that  the  method  of  necessity,  He  would  be 
forever  shut  out  from  personal  relations,  which 
can  only  exist  where  there  are  different  wills, 
capable  of  agreement  or  disagreement,  of  co- 
operation or  conflict,  of  harmony  or  discord. 


266  Sovereignty 

Jesus  believed  and  taught  that  God  has  actu- 
ally chosen  to  limit  the  autocratic  exercises  of 
His  sovereignty  by  creating  beings  who  have 
the  power  of  yielding  to  His  will  or  of  resist- 
ing it. 
The  origin  And  from  this  resistance  flow  all  the  evil, 

of  6vil  not 

in  God.  all  the  sorrow,  all  the  misery  of  the  world. 
God  does  not  ordain  sin.  God  does  not  even 
permit  sin,  in  the  sense  that  He  allows  it  to 
exist  without  opposition  and  condemnation  on 
His  part.  It  may  be  a  necessary  feature  of 
a  world  of  free  choice  and  moral  probation. 
Jesus  seems  to  imply  as  much  when  He  says 
"It  must  needs  be  that  offences  come."  But 
He  adds  at  once,  "  Woe  unto  that  man  by  whom 
the  offence  cometh."1  That  man  is  not  doing 
the  will  of  God.  He  is  a  rebel,  a  traitor,  an 
apostate.  Sin  is  a  perversion  of  the  heart  from 
its  true  purpose  just  as  blindness  is  a  perver- 
sion of  the  eye  from  its  true  function.2  When 
the  tares  appear  in  the  field,  Christ  does  not 
leave  us  to  suppose  for  a  moment  that  they 
were  planted  by  the  same  hand  that  sowed  the 
good  seed.  He  says,  "  An  enemy  hath  done 
this."3  Satan,  who  is  the  embodiment  of  evil 
and  the  leader  of  all  who  are  opposed  to  God, 

1  St.  Matt,  xviii.  7.  2  St.  Luke  xi.  34-36. 

»  St.  Matt.  xiii.  28. 


Sovereignty  ,        267 

is  the  great  enemy,  the  adversary  not  only  of 
souls,  but  also  of  the  Divine  will. 

Turn  for  a  moment  to  the  narrative  of  the  Sin  is  the 
temptation  of  Christ.1  He  was  led  up  by  the  ™nemy.  ' 
Spirit  into  the  wilderness  to  be  tempted  of 
the  devil.  But  did  the  same  Spirit  lead  the 
devil?  Was  Satan  acting  under  the  divine 
sovereignty  in  the  same  sense,  in  the  same  way, 
that  Jesus  was  ?  Set  aside,  if  you  will,  the 
question  of  the  personality  of  the  evil  one. 
There  was  a  suggestion  of  evil  before  the  mind 
of  Jesus.  Did  that  suggestion  come  from  the 
same  source  as  the  holy  strength  that  resisted  it, 
—  the  all-creating,  all-controlling  will  of  God  ? 
Can  the  same  fountain  send  forth  sweet  and 
bitter  waters?  Why  then  should  the  one  be 
called  cursed  and  the  other  blessed?  Such  a 
view  simply  obliterates  all  moral  distinctions. 
It  completely  undermines  and  ruins  the  sig- 
nificance of  Christ's  life  as  a  free  obedience  to 
the  will  of  God,  and  it  utterly  paralyzes  His 
gospel  as  a  divine  call  to  men  to  enter  freely 
into  the  same  obedience. 

Jesus  teaches  very  distinctly  that  there  are   Two  spheres 
two  spheres  in  which  the  sovereignty  of  God 
is  exercised,  —  in  heaven  and  on  earth.2    These 

1  St.  Matt.  iv.  1-11. 

2  Beyschlag,  New  Testament  Theology,  vol.  i.,  pp.  84,86. 


268  Sovereignty 

two  spheres  are  not  conceived  locally  but  spirit- 
ually. They  are  realms  in  which  the  power  of 
God  is  working  under  different  conditions.  In 

Triumphant  heaven  tne  Divine  will  is  unopposed,  and  there- 
in heaven.  7 

fore  the  empire  of  heaven  is  peace  and  holiness 
and  unbroken  love.  On  earth  the  Divine  will 
is  opposed  and  resisted,  and  therefore  earth  is 
a  scene  of  conflict  and  sin  and  discord.  For 
this  reason  the  kingdom  of  heaven  must  come 
to  earth,  it  must  win  its  way,  it  must  strive 
with  the  kingdom  of  darkness  and  overcome  it. 
God's  sovereignty  in  heaven  is  triumphant. 

Militant  God's  sovereignty  on  earth  is  militant,  in  order 
that  it  may  triumph,  — and  triumph  not  in  uni- 
versal destruction,  but  in  the  salvation  of  all 
who  will  submit  to  it  and  embrace  it  and  work 
with  it,  —  triumph  not  by  bare  force,  as  gravi- 
tation triumphs  over  stones,  but  by  holy  love, 
as  fatherly  wisdom  and  affection  triumph  over 
the  reluctance  and  rebellion  of  wayward  chil- 
dren. 

Divine  It  must  be  admitted  frankly  that  this  view 

of  Divine  sovereignty  does  not  seem  to  be 
consistent  with  the  theory  of  absolute  divine 
foreknowledge  of  all  volitions  and  all  events. 
This  has  been  urged  as  a  fatal  objection  against 
it.  But  the  objection  cannot  be  pressed  because 


omni- 
science. 


Sovereignty  269 

it  lies  in  a  region  where  our  ignorance  is  so 
great  that  dogmatism  is,  to  say  the  least,  unbe- 
coming. There  may  be  some  way  of  reconcil- 
ing the  self -limitation  of  God's  omnipotence 
with  the  certainty  of  His  foreknowledge,  which 
is  beyond  the  reach  of  our  logic.  But  whether 
there  be  any  such  reconciliation  or  not,  one 
thing  is  clear :  we  have  not  the  right  to  make 
a  logical  statement  of  our  ignorance  of  one 
divine  attribute  a  reason  for  refusing  to  accept, 
frankly  and  sincerely,  Christ's  revelation  of 
the  mode  in  which  another  divine  attribute  is 
exercised. 

God  knows  everything.     But  when  we  say  Foreknow- 
that,  we  mean  simply  that  He  knows  every-  spondswith 
thing  which  can  be  the  object  of   knowledge,   thefacts. 
He  knows  all  things  as  they  are.     He  does  not 
know  them  as  they  are  not.     The  very  perfec- 
tion of   His  knowledge   consists   in  its   exact 
correspondence  with  the  nature  of  its  object. 
If  an  event  is  certain,  fixed,  and  foreordained, 
then  God  knows  it  as  certain,  fixed,  and  fore- 
ordained.   If  it  is  contingent  upon  the  free,  self- 
determining,  preferential  action  of  a  human  will, 
then  God  knows  that  it  is  contingent,  for  He 
Himself  has  foreordained  that  it  should  be  so. 

God  waits  to  hear  whether  His  children  will  God  waits. 
call  upon  Him  in  their  distress;   and  if  they 


270  Sovereignty 

call,  He  hears  and  helps  them.  If  Jesus  teaches 
anything,  He  teaches  that  prayer  really  in- 
fluences the  purpose  and  action  of  God. 

Theproba-         Qod  waits  to  see  whether  His  husbandmen 
tionofmen.  TT.       ,.      _  „  TT.        .  , 

will  return  to  Him  the  fruits  of  His  vineyard ; 

whether  they  will  receive  and  honour  the  mes- 
sengers whom  He  sends  unto  them ;  and  if  they 
are  rejected,  He  sends  other  messengers;  and 
last  of  all  He  sends  His  Son,  saying,  "  It  may  be 
they  will  reverence  him." 1  But  when  this  last 
maybe  does  not  come  to  pass,  then  judgment 
falls  upon  the  wicked  husbandmen,  not  because 
they  have  fulfilled  the  secret  will  of  the  King, 
but  because  they  have  rebelled  against  Him. 
The  Lord  This  conception  of  God  in  His  world,  not  as 
the  mere  spectator  of  the  fulfilment  of  His 
own  immutable  decrees,  but  as  the  Lord  of 
Hosts,  presiding  over  the  great  scene  of  con- 
flict between  good  and  evil  in  the  souls  of 
men  who  can  only  attain  to  real  holiness 
through  real  liberty,  and  warring  mightily  on 
the  side  of  good  in  order  that  it  may  win  the 
victory,  infinitely  exalts  and  glorifies  Him. 
We  see  Him  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  as  the 
High  Captain  of  the  armies  of  love,  working 
salvation  in  the  midst  of  the  earth,  pleading 
with  men  to  accept  His  mercy,  warning  them 
i  St.  Luke  xx.  13. 


Sovereignty  271 

to  escape  from  His  judgments,  sustaining  the 

good    in    their    goodness,    overthrowing    the 

wicked    in    their   wickedness,    bringing    light 

out   of   darkness  and  triumph   out  of   defeat, 

amid   all   strifes   and   storms  maintaining  His 

kingdom  of  righteousness  and  peace  and   joy 

in  the  Holy  Ghost.     His  sovereignty  embraces  Sovereignty 

human  liberty  as  the  ocean  surrounds  an  island. 

His  sovereignty  upholds  human  liberty  as  the 

air   upholds   a   flying   bird.     His    sovereignty 

defends   human   liberty  as  the  authority  of   a 

true  king  defends  the  liberty  of   his  subjects, 

—  nay,   rather,   as   the   authority   of   a   father 
tenderly   and  patiently  respects   and  protects 
the  spiritual  freedom  of  his  children  in  order 
that   they   may  learn   to   love   and   obey  him 
gladly  and  of  their  own  accord.     For  this  is 
the  end  of  God's  sovereignty :  that  His  king- 
dom  may  come ;    that  His  will  may  be   done 
on   earth,  —  not   as  it  is  done  in   the   circling 
of  the  stars  or  in  the  blossoming  of  flowers, 

—  but  as  it  is  done  in  heaven,  where  created 
spirits  freely  strike   the   notes   that   blend   in 
perfect  harmony  with  the  music  of  the  Divine 
Spirit,  where 

"  Thousands  at  his  bidding  speed 
And  post  o'er  land  and  ocean  without  rest; 
They  also  serve  who  only  stand  and  wait." 


272 


Sovereignty 


Does  this 
create  un~ 
certainty  ? 


The  reserve 
of  power. 


Evil  tran- 
sient, good 
eternal. 


IV 

But  does  not  the  acknowledgment  that  God 
has  thus  limited  the  operation  of  His  sover- 
eignty on  earth  by  conditioning  His  actions 
upon  the  character  and  conduct  of  other  beings 
than  Himself,  throw  us  back  into  confusion  and 
uncertainty?  Does  it  not  make  the  course  of 
the  world  insecure  and  the  end  of  all  things 
doubtful? 

It  would  do  so  if  it  were  not  for  the  other 
truth  which  Jesus  reveals  with  equal  clearness, 
that  God  is  in  the  world  guiding,  ruling,  and 
directing  it,  and  that  He  has  kept  the  suprem- 
acy in  His  own  hands.  His  presence  is  the 
talisman  of  creation.  He  is  the  master  of  the 
ship;  His  hand  is  on  the  helm;  and  whether 
the  sailors  obey  or  mutiny,  He  will  guide  the 
vessel  to  her  appointed  haven. 

The  power  of  evil  is  a  finite,  transient,  self- 
destroying  power.  It  disintegrates,  it  dies,  it 
passes  away  with  the  enfeeblement  and  de- 
struction of  the  soul  that  yields  to  it.  But 
the  power  of  goodness  is  eternal  and  incor- 
ruptible, because  it  is  of  God.  Satan  is  the 
prince  of  this  world,  but  his  might  is  limited 
to  the  perverted  and  enslaved  wills  that  sub- 
mit to  him.  He  is  not  the  ruler  of  nature. 


Sovereignty  273 

God  is  the  master  of  winds  and  waves  and 
earth  and  stars.  The  great  battalions  are  on 
His  side  and  under  His  control.  If  for  one 
instant  the  cause  of  Christ  were  in  real  dan- 
ger, He  could  summon  celestial  hosts  without 
number  to  His  assistance.1  But  because  He 
knew  this,  He  knew  also  that  His  cause  was 
never  in  danger.  He  knew  that  His  kingdom 
was  an  everlasting  kingdom.  He  knew  that 
He  had  already  overcome  the  world. 

How  serene  and  splendid  are  the  words  with   God  the 


which  He  reassures  His  disciples,  again  and 
again!  "Fear  not!  Care  not!  Be  not  anx- 
ious! 0  thou  of  little  faith,  wherefore  didst  thou 
doubt  ?  Have  faith  in  Grod  !  Upon  this  rock 
will  I  build  my  church  and  the  gates  of  hell  shall 
not  prevail  against  it  !  Fear  not,  little  flock,  for 
it  is  your  Father's  good  pleasure  to  give  you  the 
kingdom  I  "  How  glorious  is  the  vision  of  that 
kingdom  which  Jesus  unfolds  as  He  looks  for- 
ward to  the  new  birth  of  earth  and  heaven  in 
the  perfect  fulfilment  of  the  purpose  of  God! 
How  absolute  is  the  confidence  with  which  He 
rests  upon  God's  power  to  work  out  all  that 
may  be  needed  to  bring  about  that  blessed 
consummation.  The  unwavering  faith  of  Jesus 
in  the  permanence  and  world-  wide  diffusion  and 
1  St.  Matt.  xxyi.  53. 


274 


Sovereignty 


The  inspira- 
tion of 
heroism. 


The  secret 
of  courage. 


ultimate  triumph  of  His  kingdom  of  truth  and 
holiness  and  love,  is  not  the  least  —  some- 
times I  think  it  is  the  greatest  —  evidence 
of  His  divinity  and  charm  of  His  gospel. 

Communicated  by  His  divine  influence  to  the 
hearts  of  His  disciples,  this  faith  has  been  a 
force  of  incalculable  potency  and  inspiration  in 
the  lives  of  men.  The  noblest  deeds  of  hero- 
ism and  self-sacrifice  and  liberation  have  been 
wrought  in  the  strength  of  it.  The  greatest 
conquests  over  self  and  sin,  the  supreme  vic- 
tories of  righteousness  and  love  and  peace  in 
human  hearts,  have  been  won  through  this  faith. 
Deus  vult  —  God  wills  it! — is  the  war-cry  that 
rouses  the  human  will  to  its  highest  endeavour. 

Here  is  a  man  struggling  against  evil,  long- 
ing and  striving  to  rise  to  high  and  holy  life. 
And  if  he  is  alone  in  the  struggle,  what  assur- 
ance has  he,  what  promise  or  hope  of  success  ? 
He  may  fail,  he  may  perish.  But  when  the 
great  truth  flashes  into  his  heart  that  God  is 
with  him  in  the  fight,  that  God  is  "not  will- 
ing that  any  should  perish  but  that  all  should 
come  to  repentance,"1  that  God  is  the  captain 
of  his  salvation  and  the  leader  of  his  soul, 
—  then  he  is  emancipated,  then  he  triumphs, 
then  he  is  joined  to  the  Invincible.  He  cries 
i 2  Pet.  iii.  9. 


Sovereignty  275 

with  Paul,  "If  God  is  for  us,  who  is  against 
us?"1 

Here  is  a  saint  called  to  endure  sharp  and  The 
heavy  trials,  to  drink  the  bitter  waters  of 
affliction,  to  pass  through  the  fires  of  pain,  to 
go  down  into  the  dark  valley  of  the  shadow. 
Alone,  it  would  be  impossible  ;  human  patience 
could  not  endure  it,  human  courage  could  not 
face  it,  human  wisdom  could  not  solve  the  mys- 
tery of  goodness  called  to  suffer.  But  with 
God,  believing  that  He  is  sovereign,  and  that 
He  is  love,  —  how  different  it  is  !  Now  you 
shall  see  the  wondrous  spectacle  of  a  frail,  gen- 
tle, mortal  soul,  strengthened  by  simple  sub- 
mission to  God's  will,  persecuted  but  not  for- 
saken, cast  down  but  not  destroyed,  trembling 
but  victorious.  Such  a  soul  cries  :  "  The  will 
of  God  be  done.  It  cannot  be  His  will  that  I 
should  lose  my  faith.  It  cannot  be  His  will 
that  I  should  deny  Him.  It  cannot  be  His 
will  that  I  should  be  lost,  for  He  is  good,  He  is 
my  King,  my  Father,  He  will  save  me.  It 
may  be  His  will  that  I  should  suffer  trial  for 
the  purifying  of  my  faith,  for  a  more  perfect 
fellowship  with  Christ,  for  a  better  reward  in 
heaven.  Even  so,  Father,  for  so  it  seemeth 
good  in  Thy  sight. " 

i  Rom.  viii.  31. 


276  Sovereignty 

"  I  welcome  all  Thy  sovereign  will, 

For  all  that  will  is  love ; 
And  when  I  know  not  what  Thou  dost, 
I  wait  the  light  above." 

God  in  How  radiant  and   magnificent  is  that  truth 

as  it  appears  in  the  history  of  the  Church.  The 
people  of  God  have  often  been  persecuted  and 
oppressed,  yet  God  has  been  on  their  side,  and 
no  weapon  that  has  been  formed  against  them 
has  prospered.  Here  is  Philip  of  Spain  send- 
ing his  great  Armada  to  crush  the  Reformed 
Church  of  England  and  destroy  religious  lib- 
erty in  the  cradle.  Like  a  huge  flock  of  vul- 
tures with  outspread  wings  and  fierce  talons 
and  harsh  innumerable  cries  of  menace,  that 
most  terrific  company  of  war-ships  that  ever 
darkened  air  and  sea  swoops  towards  its  prey. 
But  the  wrath  of  God  meets  it  on  the  ocean, 
and  drives  disorder  through  its  serried  ranks ; 
the  swift  little  ships  of  England  pierce  it,  and 
break  its  wings,  and  riddle  it  with  terror ;  its 
onset  is  changed  to  flight,  and  as  it  flies,  the  angry 
blasts  of  heaven  and  the  wild  waves  of  wrath 
catch  it  again,  and  whirl  it  away,  and  scatter 
on  a  hundred  rocky  shores  and  lonely  beaches 
the  wrecks  and  fragments  of  the  lost  Armada. 
How  often  has  that  wondrous  history  been 
repeated  !  How  often  has  God  proved  His 


Sovereignty  ^        277 

sovereignty  by  preserving  and  rescuing  and 
delivering  His  people  from  overwhelming 
perils  !  Even  when  it  has  seemed  to  be  other- 
wise, even  when  the  Church  has  appeared  for- 
saken and  helpless,  when  the  billows  of  perse- 
cution have  rolled  fathom-deep  above  her  head, 
when  avalanches  of  falsehood  have  buried  the 
truth  out  of  sight,  it  has  only  been  for  a  time, 
and  the  end  has  been  the  victory  of  the  de- 
feated. The  blood  of  the  martyrs  has  been 
the  seed  of  the  Church.  The  boastful  shouts  of  Truth  and 
error  have  been  the  advertisement  of  the  silent 
truth.  Error  has  had  kings  and  generals, 
philosophers  and  orators,  empires  and  armies  ; 
truth  has  had  God.  Error  has  had  swords  and 
spears,  ships  and  cannons,  fortresses  and  dun- 
geons, racks  and  fires ;  truth  has  had  God. 
God  and  one  make  a  majority.  Unless  the 
Church  doubts,  she  cannot  fear.  Unless  the 
Church  denies,  she  cannot  despair.  In  the  dark- 
est days,  when  the  confusion  seems  greatest, 
the  conflict  most  unequal,  she  can  look  out  on 
the  great  battle-field  and  cry 

"  History's  pages  but  record 
One  death-grapple  in  the  darkness  'twixt  old  systems  and 

the  Word ; 
Truth  forever  on  the  scaffold,  Wrong  forever  on  the 

throne,  — 


278 


Sovereignty 


The  victory 
is  sure. 


The  final 
consumma- 
tion. 


Yet  that  scaffold  sways  the  future,  and  behind  the  dim 

unknown 
Standeth  God  within  the  shadow,  keeping  watch  above 

His  own."  1 

But  is  it  for  the  Church  alone,  is  it  not  for 
the  whole  world  that  this  truth  of  God's  sov- 
ereignty shines  ?  To  our  eyes  the  conflict  of 
life  and  death,  of  good  and  evil,  seems  to  be 
undecided,  and  we  think  it  may  be  perpetual. 
The  dust  blinds  us  ;  the  uproar  bewilders  us  ; 
as  far  as  our  sight  can  pierce  we  see  nothing 
but  the  rolling  strife,  —  sin  always  in  arms 
against  holiness,  the  created  will  always  resist- 
ing and  defying  the  creator.  But  Christ  sees  that 
the  conflict  is  decided,  though  it  is  still  in  prog- 
ress. Christ  sees  that  the  victory  is  won, 
though  it  is  not  yet  manifest.  On  the  hill  of 
the  cross  the  captain  of  salvation  met  the  cap- 
tain of  sin  and  conquered  him.  Calvary  is 
victory.  Through  death  Christ  hath  overcome 
him  that  had  the  power  of  death,  that  is  the 
devil.2  Satan  has  received  his  mortal  wound  ; 
and  if  he  still  fights  more  fiercely,  it  is  because 
he  knoweth  that  he  hath  but  a  short  time.3  The 
day  is  coming  when  he  must  perish  ;  the  day  is 
coming  when  sin  and  strife  shall  be  no  more  ; 


1  James  Kussell  Lowell,  The  Present  Crisis. 

2  Heb.  ii.  14.  8  Rev.  xii.  12. 


Sovereignty  «      279 

the  day  is  coming  when  Christ  shall  put  all 
enemies  under  His  feet1  and  shout  above  the 
grave  of  death,  "O  thou  enemy,  destructions 
are  come  to  a  perpetual  end  "  ;  the  day  is  com- 
ing when  the  great  ship  of  the  world,  guided 
by  the  hand  of  the  Son  of  God,  shall  float  out 
of  the  clouds  and  storms,  out  of  the  shadows 
and  conflicts,  into  the  perfect  light  of  love,  and 
God  shall  be  all  in  all.  The  tide  that  bears  the 
world  to  that  glorious  end  is  the  sovereignty 
of  God. 

O  mighty  river,  strong,  eternal  Will, 
In  which  the  streams  of  human  good  and  ill 
Are  onward  swept,  conflicting,  to  the  sea,  — 
The  world  is  safe  because  it  floats  in  Thee. 

i  1  Cor.  xv.  25-28. 


vm 

SERVICE 


"  Thyself  and  thy  belongings 
Are  not  thine  own  so  proper  as  to  waste 
Thyself  upon  thy  virtues,  they  on  thee. 
Heaven  doth  with  us  as  we  with  torches  do, 
Not  light  them  for  themselves ;  for  if  our  virtues 
Did  not  go  forth  of  us,  't  were  all  alike 
As  if  we  had  them  not.     Spirits  are  not  finely  touched 
But  to  fine  issues ;  nor  Nature  never  lends 
The  smallest  scruple  of  her  excellence, 
But,  like  a  thrifty  goddess,  she  determines 
Herself  the  glory  of  a  creditor  — 
Both  thanks  and  use." 

—  Measure  for  Measure. 


VIII 

SERVICE 

THAT  strange  and  searching  genius,  Nathaniel  This  uneven 
Hawthorne,  in  one  of  his  spiritual  phantasies 
has  imagined  a  new  Adam  and  Eve  coming  to 
the  earth  after  a  Day  of  Doom  has  swept  away 
the  whole  of  mankind,  leaving  their  works  and 
abodes  and  inventions,  —  all  that  bears  witness 
to  the  present  condition  of  humanity,  —  un- 
touched and  silently  eloquent.  The  represent- 
atives of  a  new  race  enter  with  wonder  and 
dismay  the  forsaken  heritage  of  the  old.  They 
pass  through  the  streets  of  a  depopulated  city. 
The  sharp  contrast  between  the  splendour  of 
one  habitation  and  the  squalor  of  another,  fills 
them  with  distressed  astonishment.  They  are 
painfully  amazed  at  the  unmistakable  signs  of 
inequality  in  the  conditions  of  men.  They  are 
troubled  and  overwhelmed  by  the  evidence  of 
the  great  and  miserable  fact  that  one  portion 
of  earth's  lost  inhabitants  was  rich  and  com- 
fortable and  full  of  ease,  while  the  multitude 
283 


284 


Service 


The  sense  of 
distress  at 
life's  ine- 
quality. 


The  sympa- 
thy of  the 
age. 


was  poor  and  weary  and  heavy-laden  with 
toil.1 

This  feeling  of  sorrowful  perplexity  over  the 
unevenness  and  apparent  injustice  of  human 
life,  which  the  prose  poet  puts  into  the  heart 
of  his  new  Adam  and  Eve,  is  really  but  a  reflec- 
tion from  the  tender  and  pitiful  depths  of  his 
own.  Who  is  there  that  has  not  sometimes 
felt  it  rising  within  his  own  breast,  —  this  pro- 
found sentiment  of  inward  trouble  and  grief, 
this  feeling  of  spiritual  discord  and  wondering 
repugnance  at  the  sight  of  a  world  in  which  the 
good  things  of  life  are  so  unequally  distributed, 
in  which  at  the  very  outset  of  existence,  before 
the  factor  of  personal  merit  or  demerit,  the 
element  of  work  and  wages,  enters  into  the 
problem  at  all,  so  much  is  given  to  one  man 
and  so  little  to  another  man  that  they  seem  to 
be  forever  separated  and  set  at  enmity  with 
each  other  by  the  unfairness  with  which  they 
are  treated? 

This  sentiment  has  been  strangely  deepened 
and  intensified  in  the  nineteenth  century  by 
innumerable  causes,  until  it  has  become  one  of 
the  most  marked  characteristics  of  the  present 
age.  Never  before  have  men  felt  the  sorrows 


1  Hawthorne's  Works,  Riverside  Edition,  1884 ;  Mosses 
from  an  Old  Manse,  p.  297. 


Service  285 

Hi 

and  hardships  of  their  fellow-men  so  widely,  so 
keenly,  so  constantly  as  to-day.  In  one  sense 
this  is  the  honour  and  glory  of  our  age.  It  is 
an  evidence  of  quickened  moral  sensibility,  a 
revival  or  renewal  of  the  noblest  capacities  of 
our  human  nature. 

But  in  another  sense  it  is  the  greatest  peril  A  noble 
of  our  age.  For  it  has  been  seized  by  the  spirit  S^v™to 
of  scepticism  and  transformed  into  an  ally  of  madness. 
annihilating  doubt.  It  has  been  used  as  an 
argument  against  the  possibility  of  discovering 
a  moral  order  in  such  a  "hungry,  ill-condi- 
tioned world"  as  this.  Man's  inhumanity  to 
man  has  been  employed  to  prove  God's  indiffer- 
ence or  injustice  to  man.  The  feeling  of  sor- 
row and  perplexity  has  been  aggravated  by 
wild  and  whirling  words  into  a  passion  of 
resentment  against  the  present  conditions  of 
life.  Rash  and  sweeping  schemes  for  their 
total  destruction  have  been  proclaimed  as  a  new 
gospel.  Christianity  has  been  first  claimed  as 
a  supporter  of  these  schemes,  and  then  de- 
nounced and  repudiated  as  the  chief  obstacle 
to  their  success.  The  cry  goes  up  that  the 
whole  world  is  out  of  joint.  "Everything  is 
wrong  and  crooked  and  unfair :  the  race  of 
man  has  been  deceived  and  maltreated  and 
oppressed  by  the  creation  of  such  an  order  of 


286  Service 

life  as  the  present.  If  God  created  it,  so  much 
the  worse  for  God.  But  it  is  almost  certain 
that  He  did  not  create  it,  almost  certain  that 
there  is  no  God.  The  world  of  inequality  is 
man's  mistake.  There  is  but  one  thing  to  do, 
and  that  is  to  break  it  all  up,  at  once  and 
utterly,  and  begin  anew.  Create  a  new  world 
if  possible.  If  not,  then  let  the  old  wreck  sink 
and  be  blotted  out,  for  it  is  worse,  infinitely 
worse,  than  the  blank  desolation  of  an  uncon- 
scious chaos." 

what  shall  This  cry  of  anger  and  despair  rings  to- 
day in  the  ears  of  all  earnest  and  thoughtful 
men  and  women.  The  element  of  sincerity, 
.of  truth,  of  justice,  that  thrills  unmistakably 
through  its  strange,  fierce  music,  stirs  our 
hearts  to  the  core.  We  are  filled  with  per- 
turbation and  distress  and  deep  anxiety  to 
know  the  right  and  to  do  it,  to  understand  the 
meaning  of  this  exceeding  great  and  bitter  cry, 
and  the  duty  to  which  it  calls  us.  Is  it  indeed 
the  utterance  of  true  equity  and  wisdom  ?  Is 
it  the  voice  of  a  new  Adam,  appearing  after  so 
many  ages  of  delusion,  with  open  eyes  to  con- 
demn the  old  world,  and  with  ruthless  hand  to 
break  it  in  pieces  ?  Must  we  welcome  him  and 
hearken  to  him  and  believe  in  him,  as  the  true 
judge  and  regenerator  and  leader  of  mankind  ? 


Service  287 

M 

The  very  form  of  the  question  points  the  Christ's 
way  to  the  only  Master  who  can  answer  it. 
Hawthorne's  picture  of  the  second  Adam  was 
a  poetic  dream.  But  the  Apostle  Paul  uses  the 
same  figure  to  reveal  a  historic  truth.  "  The 
first  man  Adam  became  a  living  soul.  The  last 
Adam  became  a  life-giving  spirit.  Howbeit 
that  is  not  first  which  is  spiritual,  but  that 
which  is  natural ;  then  that  which  is  spiritual. 
The  first  man  is  of  the  earth,  earthy ;  the 
second  man  is  of  heaven." 1  The  new  Adam 
has  already  come  upon  the  earth,  eighteen  cen- 
turies ago.  He  was  called  Jesus.  With  pure 
and  perfect  heart  He  entered  into  the  world, 
not  desolate  and  depopulate,  but  thronged  with 
the  myriads  of  toiling,  suffering  men.  With 
clear  eyes  He  looked  upon  their  different  con- 
ditions, their  manifold  inequalities,  their  out- 
ward and  inward  joys  and  sorrows.  With 
steadfast  heart  He  set  Himself  to  the  divine 
task  of  beginning  a  new  humanity  and  inaugu- 
rating the  kingdom  of  heaven  on  earth. 

He  did  not  strive  nor  cry,  neither  was  His  His  calm- 
voice  heard  in  the  streets.2     He  did  not  protest  ness  "nd 

sanity. 

against  the  moral  government  of  the  universe, 

because  one  man  was  rich   and  another  poor, 

one  strong  and  another  weak,  one  happy  and 

1  1  Cor.  xv.  45-47.        2  St.  Matt.  xii.  19. 


288  Service 

another  wretched,  one  good  and  another  evil. 
He  did  not  say  that  God  must  be  unjust  be- 
cause He  has  given,  in  things  spiritual  as  well 
as  in  things  temporal,  much  to  one  and  little 
to  another.  He  did  not  teach  His  followers 
that  the  only  way  to  help  the  world  was  to 
rebel  against  this  order,  and  refuse  to  submit 
to  it,  and  denounce  it,  and  fight  against  it. 
He  did  not  even  proclaim  a  social  and  political 
revolution.  He  was  the  most  peaceful,  orderly, 
obedient,  loyal  citizen  of  all  that  subject  land  of 
Palestine  ;  rendering  unto  Ctesar  the  things 
that  were  Csesar's,  discharging  every  duty  of 
His  lowly  lot  with  cheerful  fidelity,  and  labour- 
ing patiently  for  His  daily  bread. 

He  knows          He  was  not  blind,  nor  dull  of  heart  to  feel 

the  secret.      ^he  troubles  of  life.     The  problem  of  inequality 

lay  wide  open   before   Him.     But   it  did  not 

agitate   nor   distract   Him.     He  neither  raved 

nor  despaired.     He  was  serene  and  sane. 

"  He  saw  life  clearly  and  He  saw  it  whole." 

He  looked  through  the  problem  to  its  true 
solution.  He  knew  the  secret  which  justifies 
the  ways  of  God  to  man.  He  knew  the  secret 
by  which  an  eternal  harmony  is  to  be  brought 
into  the  apparent  discords  of  life.  He  knew 
the  secret  by  which  men  living  in  an  unequal 


Service  ^       289 

world,  and  accepting  its  inequality  as  the  con- 
dition of  their  present  existence,  can  still  be- 
come partakers  of  a  perfect,  peaceful  equity, 
and  citizens  of  an  invisible,  imperishable  city 
of  God.  That  secret  was  none  other  than  the 
highest,  holiest  doctrine  of  Jesus,  the  divine 
truth  of  election  to  service. 


Before  we  set  our  hearts  to  take  in  the 
meaning  and  the  fulness  of  this  truth,  let  us  ff°sPelf°r 

the  present 

try  to  get  them  in  tune  for  it  by  listening  to  world. 
some  of  the  other  teachings  of  Jesus  which  are 
meant  to  quiet  and  steady  us  in  the  contempla- 
tion of  the  unevenness  of  human  existence. 

And  first  of  all  He  reminds  us  that  our  real 
happiness  in  this  world  does  not  depend  upon 
our  outward  condition,  but  upon  our  inward 
state.  "  The  life  is  more  than  meat  and  the 
body  than  raiment."1  "A  man's  life  consist- 
eth  not  in  the  abundance  of  the  things  which 
he  possesseth."2  The  land  of  wealth  is  not  the 
empire  of  peace.  Joy  is  not  bounded  on  the 
north  by  poverty,  on  the  east  by  obscurity,  on 
the  west  by  simplicity,  and  on  the  south  by 
servitude.  It  runs  far  over  these  borders  on 

i  St.  Matt.  vi.  25.        *  St.  Luke  xii.  15. 
u 


290  Service 

every  side.  The  lowliest,  plainest,  narrowest 
life  may  be  the  sweetest.  Most  of  the  disciples 
of  Jesus  were  peasants,  but  they  were  as  happy, 
as  contented,  even  in  this  world,  as  if  they  had 
been  princes.  There  was  more  gladness  and 
singleness  of  heart  in  that  frugal  breakfast  of 
broiled  fish  and  bread  beside  the  boats  on  the 
shore  of  the  sea  of  Tiberias,1  than  in  the 
splendid  feast  in  the  house  of  Simon  the  Phari- 
see. Life  has  its  compensations  and  its  com- 
forts for  all  estates.  Work  means  health. 
Obscurity  means  freedom.  The  best  pleasures 
are  those  that  are  most  widely  diffused. 
The  secret  of  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  Jesus  overlooked 
the  bitter  hardships  of  toil  under  bad  masters, 
under  false  and  cruel  and  oppressive  laws.  I 
do  not  mean  to  say  that  He  would  not  have 
been  full  of  pity  and  indignation  at  the  sight 
of  the  crushed  and  crippled  state  of  great  mul- 
titudes of  human  beings  in  our  modern  cities. 
But  I  am  sure  that  He  teaches  us  to  believe 
that  the  real  source  of  human  misery  is  not  in 
poverty,  but  in  a  bad  heart;  that  envy  is  not  a 
virtue,  but  a  vice  ;  that  life  is  a  great  gift  to  all 
who  will  receive  it  cheerfully  and  contentedly, 
even  in  a  world  where  its  material  things  are 
unevenly  distributed ;  and  that  the  true  beati- 
*  St.  John  xxi.  1-13. 


Service  291 

t4 

tudes  are  not  monopolies  reserved  for  the  few, 
but  blessings  within  the  reach  of  all,  and  glori- 
ously independent  of  all  outward  contrasts  in  the 
lives  of  men.  Indeed  it  seems  as  if  He  would 
go  even  beyond  this,  and  remind  us  that  some 
of  these  blessings  could  not  be  ours  except  in  a 
world  of  contrast  and  temporal  inequality.  Of 
the  eight  beatitudes  which  Jesus  Himself  pro- 
nounced, four  at  least, — the  blessing  of  the 
mourners,  and  of  the  meek,  and  of  the  mer- 
ciful, and  of  the  peace-makers,  —  imply  the 
existence  of  differences  and  degrees  among 
men ;  and  one  —  the  blessing  of  those  who  are 
persecuted  for  righteousness'  sake  —  is  only 
possible  in  a  world  where  evil  is  sometimes 
actually  more  powerful  and  prosperous  than 
good. 

I  have  not  been  able  to  find  a  single  word  of  The  compen- 
Christ  that  looks  forward  to  a  time   in  which  s}?!*°ns  °^ 

iije. 

there  shall  be  no  more  inequalities  on  earth,  no 
more  rich  and  poor,  no  more  masters  and  ser- 
vants, no  more  wise  men,  and  no  more  babes. 
But  there  are  many  words  of  His  that  pierce 
with  mild  and  gracious  light  through  all  these 
outward  distinctions  to  reveal  the  truth  that 
this  kind  of  inequality  is  superficial  and  illusory, 
that  the  babes  rejoice  in  beholding  those  mys- 
teries which  are  hidden  from  the  wise  and  pru- 


292  Service 

dent,  that  servants  are  often  nobler  and  more 
free  than  their  masters,  that  the  poor  may 
have  treasures  laid  up  in  heaven  which  are 
beyond  all  earthly  reckoning,  and  that  this  is 
the  true  wealth  which  brings  contentment  and 
peace. 

Peace  on  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that  Jesus 

preached  a  gospel  which  was  melancholy  and 
depressing  for  those  who  received  it  in  this 
world.  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that 
He  taught  men  that  they  must  resign  them- 
selves to  earthly  misery  and  make  the  journey 
of  life  as  a  weary  and  mournful  pilgrimage. 
He  came  to  cheer  and  brighten  the  hearts  of 
all  who  would  accept  His  guidance  and  tread 
the  path  of  virtue  with  courage  and  fidelity  and 
hope.  He  came  to  give  us  rest  in  the  midst  of 
toil,  and  that  refreshment  which  only  comes 
from  weariness  in  a  good  cause.  He  came  to 
tell  us  not  to  despair  of  happiness,  but  to  re- 
member that  the  only  way  to  reach  it  on  earth 
is  to  seek  first  usefulness,  first  the  kingdom  of 
God,  and  then  the  other  things  shall  be  added. 
He  that  loseth  his  life  for  Christ's  sake  shall 
not  lose  it  but  find  it,1 — find  it  in  deep  inward 
contentment, 

"  And  vital  feelings  of  delight," 
i  St.  Matt.  x.  39. 


Service  293 

10 

which  make  up  the  true  and  incomparable  joy 
of  living. 

Jesus  does  not  differ  from  other  masters  in  The  secret 
that  He  teaches  us  to  scorn  earthly  felicity. 
The  divine  difference  is  that  He  teaches  us  how 
to  attain  earthly  felicity,  under  all  circum- 
stances, in  prosperity  and  in  adversity,  in  sick- 
ness and  in  health,  in  solitude  and  in  society, 
by  taking  His  yoke  upon  us,  and  doing  the 
will  of  God,  and  so  finding  rest  unto  our  souls. 
That  is  the  debt  which  every  child  of  God  owes 
.not  only  to  God,  but  also  to  his  own  soul,  — 
to  find  the  real  joy  of  living. 

"  Joy  is  a  duty,"  —  so  with  golden  lore  Joy  is  <* 

The  Hebrew  rabbis  taught  in  days  of  yore.  duty. 

And  happy  human  hearts  heard  in  their  speech 
Almost  the  highest  wisdom  man  can  reach. 

But  one  bright  peak  still  rises  far  above, 

And  there  the  Master  stands  whose  name  is  Love, 

Saying  to  those  whom  heavy  tasks  employ 

"  Life  is  divine  when  duty  is  a  joy." 

The  second  point  in  the  teaching   of   Jesus   The  world 

,  .   ,    .  . . ,.  .  e    . ,  that  is  to 

which  is  meant  to  rectify  our  views  of  the  un-  come 
evenness  of  the  world,  is  His  doctrine  of  a  future 
life,  —  not  a  different  life,  but  the  same  life  mov- 
ing on  under  new  conditions  and  to  new  issues. 
This  world  is  not  all.  There  is  another  world,  a 
better  age,  a  more  perfect  state  of  being,  in  which 


294 


Service 


The  errors 
of  time  call 
for  the 
balance  of 
eternity. 


the  sorrows  and  losses  of  those  who  now  suffer 
unjustly  will  be  compensated,  and  in  which — 
let  us  not  hesitate  to  say  it  as  calmly  and  as 
firmly  as  Jesus  said  it  —  those  who  have  un- 
justly and  selfishly  enjoyed  their  good  things 
in  this  world  will  suffer  in  their  turn.  It  is 
the  fashion  nowadays  to  sneer  at  such  teaching 
as  this  ;  to  call  it  "  other- worldliness  "  ;  to 
declare  that  it  has  no  real  power  to  strengthen 
or  uplift  the  hearts  of  men.  Jesus  did  not 
think  so.  Jesus  made  much  of  it.  Jesus 
pressed  home  upon  the  hearts  of  men  the  con- 
solations and  warnings  of  immortality.  He 
showed  the  miserable  failure  of  the  man  who 
filled  his  barns  and  lost  his  empty  soul.1  He 
bade  His  disciples,  when  they  suffered  and  were 
persecuted  for  righteousness'  sake,  "  rejoice  and 
be  exceeding  glad,  for  great  is  your  reward 
in  heaven."2 

Let  us  not  impoverish  our  gospel  by  flinging 
away,  in  our  fancied  superiority,  this  precious 
truth.  It  is  impossible  to  justify  the  present 
fragmentary  existence  of  man  if  we  look  at  it 
and  speak  of  it  as  the  whole  of  his  life.  Earth 
has  mysteries  which  naught  but  heaven  can 
explain.  Earth  has  sorrows  which  naught  but 
heaven  can  heal.  Yes,  and  earth  has  evils, 
i  St.  Luke  xii.  16-21.  «  St.  Matt.  v.  12. 


Service  295 

black  and  secret  offences  of  man  against  man, 
false  and  foul  treasons  against  the  love  of  God, 
crimes  which  take  a  base  advantage  of  His  pa- 
tience and  long-suffering  and  hide  themselves 
like  poisonous  serpents  in  the  shelter  of  the 
very  laws  which  He  has  made  for  the  good  of 
the  world,  sins  all  entangled  with  the  present 
structure  of  society  and  beyond  the  reach  of 
human  law,  undiscoverable  iniquities,  unpardon- 
able and  unpunishable  cruelties,- — which  naught 
but  hell  can  disclose  and  consume.  The  errors 
of  time  call  for  the  balance  of  eternity.  Pa- 
tient labour,  patient  endurance,  patient  resig- 
nation in  this  present  life  shall  be  greatly 
rewarded  in  the  life  to  come.  Now  is  the  day 
of  toil  and  trial ;  but  the  pay-day  will  surely 
dawn.  Much  of  the  best  that  is  done  in  this 
world  receives  no  earthly  wages.  Those  to 
whom  it  is  done,  —  the  poor,  the  maimed,  the 
lame,  the  blind,  —  "  they  cannot  recompense 
thee  ;  but  thou  shalt  be  recompensed  at  the 
resurrection  of  the  just."1 

Thus  Jesus  teaches  ;  and  He  shows  us  that  This  un- 
the  present   order   of   inequality,  so   far   from  e3ualW6 
being  an  obstacle  to   this   result,  is    the    very  tionfor  the 
means  by  which  it  is  to  be  accomplished.     The  Suture- 
discipline  of  this  uneven  life  is  the  education 
i  St.  Li&e  xiv.  14. 


296 


Service 


Fraternity 
better  than 
equality. 


by  which  alone  we  can  be  prepared  for  the 
heavenly  life.  Jesus  does  not  present  Himself 
as  a  rectifier  of  life's  unequal  conditions  of 
outward  fortune.  He  distinctly  refuses  this 
office.  "Man,  who  made  me  a  judge  or  a 
divider  over  you  ?'?1  Jesus  does  not  preach  an 
equality  which  is  synonymous  with  life  on  a 
dead  level.  He  does  not  preach  equality  at 
all.  He  preaches  fraternity.  And  frater- 
nity implies  differences,  —  older  and  younger, 
stronger  and  weaker,  higher  and  lower.  The 
elder  brother  is  the  heir;  all  that  the  father 
has  is  his ;  but  his  sin  lies  in  holding  fast 
to  his  inheritance  selfishly,  in  shutting  out 
his  younger  brother,  in  forgetting  and  deny- 
ing that  he  is  a  brother  at  all.2  The  distinc- 
tions of  life  are  not  meant  to  obscure,  but  to 
reveal  and  to  beautify  its  best  virtues.  Out  of 
dependence  spring  the  sweet  blossoms  of  grati- 
tude and  loyalty.  Out  of  mastership  flow  the 
refreshing  streams  of  forbearance  and  justice 
and  mercy.  The  apostle  tells  us  that  the  love 
of  money  is  a  root  of  all  kinds  of  evil.3 
But  Christ  shows  us  the  deeper  truth  that 
the  right  use  of  money  is  a  means  of  all 
kinds  of  good.  "It  is  more  blessed  to  give 


St.  Luke  xii.  14.        «  st<  Luke  xv.  25-32. 
8  1  Tim.  vi.  10. 


Service  297 

.4 

than  to  receive."1  Every  gift  of  Providence 
to  us  is  an  opportunity  and  therefore  a  re- 
sponsibility, and  the  blessing  does  not  come 
with  the  gift  until  we  recognize  the  responsi- 
bility, and  use  the  opportunity.  The  mammon 
of  unrighteousness  can  only  be  destroyed  by 
a  process  of  transformation  which  transmutes 
it  into  the  pure  gold  of  the  celestial  treasury.2 
The  name  of  that  process  is  charity.  And  the 
translation  of  that  name  is  wise  and  holy 
love. 

Let  us  try  to  think  distinctly.  It  is  said  Christianity 
nowadays  that  Christianity  means  communism, 
and  that  it  is  the  duty  of  all  Christians  to 
give  away  everything  that  they  possess.  It 
is  strange  that  Christ  never  proclaimed  this 
duty  except  to  one  man,  and  that  man  was  not 
a  Christian.3  Of  course  it  must  be  admitted 
at  once  that  this  would  be  the  duty  of  all 
Christians  if  it  could  be  shown  that  it  would 
be  for  the  real  good  of  their  fellow-men.  But 
this  never  has  been  shown.  On  the  contrary, 
communism  has  always  turned  out  badly.  It 
was  tried  in  Jerusalem,  in  a  limited  way,  when 
the  early  Christians  sold  all  that  they  had  and 
made  a  common  purse ;  but  it  led,  in  less 

i  Acts  xx.  35.  2  St.  Luke  xvi.  19. 

3  St.  Mark  x.  21. 


298 


Service 


than  ten  years,  to  confusion  and  strife,  and 
sank  the  Jerusalem  church  into  a  condition 
of  pauperism  and  dependence  upon  the  other 
churches,  which  had  avoided  the  well-meant 
but  dangerous  experiment.  It  was  tried  in 
France,  under  atheistic  auspices,  and  its  fruit 
was  wide-spread  misery  and  injustice.  It  was 
tried  to  some  degree  in  England,  under  a  sys- 
tem of  poor  laws  which  were  based  upon  the 
idea  that  every  man  had  a  right  to  eat  whether 
he  would  work  or  not,  and  it  resulted  in  such 
disorder  and  demoralization  that  it  had  to  be 
discarded  as  a  menace  to  society. 

There  is  nothing  in  the  teachings  of  Christ 
which  would  make  us  blind  to  these  plain 
and  well  as  lessons  of  history.  On  the  contrary,  He  de- 
sires and  commands  us  to  discover  and  do  that 
which  will  really  bless  and  help  our  fellow- 
men.  "  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thy- 
self," l  —  the  same  kind  of  love,  the  same  in- 
ward regard  for  the  higher  ends  and  aims  of 
life,  which  is  the  saving  grace  of  the  indi- 
vidual soul,  is  to  be  the  saving  grace  of  so- 
ciety. And  what  kind  of  love  is  that?  It 
is  a  wise  and  holy  love,  a  love  which  puts 
character  first  and  comfort  second,  a  love  which 
seeks  to  purify  and  bless  and  uplift  the  whole 
1  St.  Matt.  xxii.  39. 


Love  thy 
neighbour 
as  wisely 


Service  299 

vi 

man.  Such  a  love  may  be  shown  by  withhold- 
ing as  truly  as  by  bestowing.  False  charity 
pampers  self  and  pauperizes  others.  True  char- 
ity educates  self  by  helping  others.  The  so- 
called  Christian  who  never  gives  is  a  false 
Christian.  The  Christian  who  gives  carelessly, 
blindly,  indiscriminately,  however  generously, 
is  a  very  imperfect  Christian.  The  Christian 
who  gives  thoughtfully,  seriously,  fraternally, 
bending  his  best  powers  to  the  accomplishment 
of  a  real  benefaction  of  his  fellow-men,  bestow- 
ing himself  with  his  gift,  is  in  the  true  and 
only  way  of  the  following  of  Jesus. 

Preach  this  truth.  Preach  it  home  to  the  Every 
hearts  of  men,  without  fear  or  favour  for  rich 
or  poor.  Preach  it  home  to  your  own  heart 
so  close  that  it  shall  save  you  from  the  min- 
ister's besetting  sins  of  spiritual  selfishness  and 
cant.  Tell  the  Lady  Bountiful  that  she  is  not 
called  to  discard  her  ladyhood,  but  to  give  her- 
self with  all  her  refinements,  with  all  her  ac- 
complishments, with  all  that  has  been  given  to 
her  of  sweetness  and  light,  to  the  ennobling 
service  of  humanity.  Tell  the  Merchant-Prince 
that  he  is  not  called  to  abandon  his  place  of 
influence  and  power,  but  to  fill  it  in  a  princely 
spirit,  to  be  a  true  friend  and  father  to  all  who 
are  dependent  upon  him,  to  make  his  prosper- 


300  Service 

ity  a  fountain  of  blessing  to  his  fellow-men,  to 
be  a  faithful  steward  of  Almighty  God.  And 
then  let  us  tell  ourselves,  as  members  of  the 
so-called  "  educated  classes,"  to  whom  God  has 
given  even  greater  gifts  than  those  of  rank  and 
riches, — privileges  of  knowledge,  opportunities 
of  culture,  free  access  to  the  stored-up  wisdom 
of  the  ages,  —  let  us  tell  ourselves  with  un- 
flinching fidelity  that  God  will  hold  us  to  a 
strict  account  for  all  these  things.  If  our  salt 
loses  its  savour  it  shall  be  trodden  under  foot 
of  men.  If  our  culture  separates  us  from  hu- 
manity we  shall  be  cast  into  the  outer  darkness. 
Our  light  must  shine  or  be  shamefully  extin- 
guished. Every  faculty  and  every  gift  we 
possess  must  be  honestly  and  entirely  conse- 
crated to  the  service  of  man,  in  Christ's  name 
and  for  Christ's  sake.  This  is  the  gospel  for 
the  present  age,  and  for  every  age.  This  is 
Social  re-  the  way  in  which  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  to 
generation.  ^  established  on  earth.  This  is  the  way  in 
which  the  inequality  of  this  mortal  life  is  to 
be  transfigured  and  irradiated  with  a  divine 
equity.  "What  we  look  for,  work  for,  pray 
for,  as  believers,  is  a  nation  where  class  shall 
be  bound  to  class  by  the  fullest  participation 
in  the  treasure  of  the  one  life ;  where  the  mem- 


Service  ^         301 

bers  of  each  group  of  workers  shall  find  in  their 
work  the  development  of  their  character  and 
the  consecration  of  their  powers  :  where  the 
highest  ambition  of  men  shall  be  to  be  leaders 
of  their  own  class,  so  using  their  special  powers 
without  waste  and  following  the  common  tradi- 
tions to  noble  issues  :  where  each  citizen  shall 
know,  and  be  strengthened  by  the  knowledge, 
that  he  labours  not  for  himself  only,  nor  for 
his  family,  nor  for  his  country,  but  for  GOD."1 

II 

Thus  far  the  teaching  of  Christ  leads  us  with  inequality 
clear  serenity  in  our  understanding  of  the  dif-  ™  ' 

ferences  among  men  in  the  distribution  of  the 
goods  of  this  present  world.  But  the  deeper 
problem  still  remains  untouched.  There  is  an 
apparent  inequality  in  the  bestowal  of  spiritual 
blessings.  In  the  life  of  the  soul  also,  it  seems 
that  much  is  given  to  one  and  little  to  another. 
Some  men  are  born  very  close  to  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  and  powerfully  drawn  by  unseen 
hands  to  enter  its  happy  precincts.  Other  men 
are  born  far  away  from  the  gates  of  light,  and 
it  looks  to  us  as  if  all  the  influences  of  their  life 
were  hindrances  rather  than  helps  to  holiness. 

1  B.  F.  Westcott,  Bishop  of  Durham,  The  Incarnation 
and  Common  Life  (London,  Macmillan,  1893),  p.  82. 


302  Service 

There  is  an  undeniable  contrast  in  the  religious 
world  which  can  only  be  interpreted  as  a  divine 
f  oreordination,  —  that  is  to  say,  an  act  by  which 
some  men  are  set  before  others,  given  the  pre- 
cedence, offered  an  earlier  and  apparently  an 
easier  opportunity  of  spiritual  life.  If  God  is 
sovereign,  this  act,  by  which  the  means  of  grace 
are  unevenly  dispensed,  must  be  the  result  of  a 
divine  choice. 

The  doctrine  The  formal  recognition  of  this  choice  is  the 
doctrine  of  election.  It  is  an  inevitable  doc- 
trine. It  is  founded  upon  facts  which  admit 
of  no  denial.  And  it  brings  every  thoughtful 
and  earnest  soul  face  to  face  with  the  question 
of  questions,  upon  the  answer  to  which  the 
nature  and  reality  of  religion  depend. 

The  search-  is  GOC[  arbitrary,  is  God  partial,  is  God  unjust ! 
Does  He  bless  some  of  His  children  and  leave 
the  rest  under  an  irremediable  curse  without  a 
single  reason  which  can  be  exhibited  to  human 
faith  and  justified  in  perfect  love  ?  In  the  last 
and  highest  realm  of  life,  the  realm  of  the  spirit, 
does  He  make  it  more  blessed  to  receive  than 
to  give,  and  exercise  His  sovereignty  in  favour- 
itism, and  establish  heaven  as  a  kingdom  of 
infinite  and  eternal  and  inexplicable  inequality  ? 

False  It  is  an  idle  thing  to  answer  this  question  by 

answers. 

an  appeal  to  God's  absolute  right  to  dispose  of 


Service  **          303 

all  His  creatures  as  He  will.  For  the  very 
essence  of  true  religion  is  the  faith  that  He  is 
such  a  God  that  He  wills  to  dispose  of  all  His 
creatures  wisely  and  fairly  and  in  perfect  love. 
And  the  very  essence  of  a  true  revelation,  as 
the  message  which  calls  religion  into  being,  is 
that  it  makes  God's  wisdom  and  fairness  and 
love  manifest,  and  so  helps  us  to  understand 
and  adore  and  trust  Him,  not  only  for  ourselves 
but  for  the  whole  world. 

It  is  an  idle  thing  to  answer  this  question  by  -Anirrespo 

_ J    sible  God. 

saying  that  God  is  under  no  obligation  to  be 
good  to  everybody,  and  therefore  that  He  may 
be  good  to  whomsoever  He  pleases.  The  idea 
of  an  irresponsible  God  is  a  moral  mockery. 
Poisonous  doubt  exhales  from  it  as  malaria  from 
a  swamp.  To  teach  that  all  men  are  God's 
debtors,  and  that  therefore  it  is  right  for  Him 
to  remit  the  debt  of  one  man,  and  to  exact  the 
penalty  from  another  to  the  last  farthing,  is  to 
teach  what  is  logically  true  and  morally  false. 
Our  hearts  recoil  from  such  a  doctrine.  If 
God  has  made  us,  and  made  us  spiritual 
paupers,  utterly  incapable  of  anything  good, 
we  are  not  His  debtors.  Jesus  teaches  us  that 
God  asks  of  us  only  to  give  as  freely  as  we  have 
received.1  He  demands  only  that  which  He 
1  St.  Matt.  x.  8. 


304 


Service 


A  God 
whose  glory 
is  not 
goodness. 


Election 
perverted  in 
human 
theology. 


Himself  has  made  us  able  to  pay.  And  He 
forgives  like  the  good  master  in  the  parable, 
with  a  free  pardon  which  needs  but  the  con- 
fession of  helplessness  and  poverty  to  call  it 
forth.1 

It  is  an  idle  thing  to  answer  this  question  by 
an  appeal  to  ignorance,  and  to  say  that  God 
elects  some  men  to  be  saved  and  leaves  the  rest 
of  mankind  to  be  lost  simply  for  His  own  un- 
searchable and  inexplicable  glory  !  For  God's 
glory,  as  revealed  by  religion,  is  identical  with 
His  goodness.  Faith,  true  and  joyful  and  up- 
lifting faith,  answers  only  to  a  gospel  which 
makes  that  identity  more  clear  and  luminous, 
and  shows  that  the  divine  election  in  the  realm 
of  grace  is  perfectly  consistent  with  that  wide 
and  deep  love  wherewith  God  so  loved  the 
whole  world  that  He  sent  His  only  begotten 
Son  that  whosoever  believQth  in  Him  should 
not  perish  but  have  everlasting  life. 

Now  it  is  because  men  have  forgotten  this 
that  they  have  found  no  answer,  or  a  false  and 
misleading  answer,  to  the  problem  of  inequality 
in  the  spiritual  world.  It  is  because  they  have 
torn  the  doctrine  of  election  from  its  roots  in 
the  divine  love,  and  petrified  it  with  unholy 
logic,  that  it  has  lost  its  beauty,  its  perfume, 
1  St.  Matt,  xviii.  27. 


Service  305 

i0 

its  power  of  fruitfulness  to  everlasting  life. 
We  must  go  back  from  the  dead  skeleton  as  it 
is  preserved  in  the  museum  of  theology  to  the 
living  plant  as  it  blossoms  in  the  field  of  the 
Bible.  We  must  go  back  of  Jonathan  Edwards, 
and  back  of  John  Calvin,  and  back  of  Augustine, 
to  St.  Paul,  and  see  how,  under  his  hand,  all 
the  mysterious  facts  of  election  as  they  are 
unfolded  in  human  history,  break  into  flower 
at  last  in  the  splendid  faith  that  "God  hath 
shut  up  all  unto  disobedience  that  He  might 
have  mercy  upon  all."1  We  must  go  still 
farther  back,  to  Christ,  and  learn  from  Him 
that  election  is  simply  the  way  in  which  God 
uses  His  chosen  ones  to  bless  the  world, — 
the  divine  process  by  which  the  good  seed  is 
sown  and  scattered  far  and  wide  and  the 
heavenly  harvest  multiplied  a  thousand-fold. 
"  I  elected  you,"  He  says  to  His  disciples  and 
to  us,  "  I  elected  you,  and  appointed  you,  that 
ye  should  go  and  bear  fruit,  and  that  your  fruit 
should  abide."2 

Christ's   doctrine    of    election    is    a    living,   Christ's  doc- 
fragrant,    fruitful   doctrine.       It   is   the    most  election  to 
beautiful  thing  in  Christianity.     It  is  the  very  service. 
core   and   substance   of  the   gospel,  translated 

.  i  Komans  xi.  32. 
2  St.  John  xv.  16. 


306  Service 

from  the  heart  of  God  into  the  life  of  man.  It 
is  the  divine  law  of  service  in  spiritual  things. 
It  is  the  supreme  truth  in  the  revelation  of  an 
all-glorious  love  ;  the  truth  that  God  chooses 
men  not  to  be  saved  alone,  but  to  be  saved  by 
saving  others,  and  that  the  greatest  in  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  is  he  who  is  most  truly  the 
servant  of  all. 

Christ  as  Is  not  this  true  of  Christ  Himself?     He  is 

servant.  ^ne  great  example  of  what  it  means  to  be  elect. 
He  is  the  beloved  Son  in  whom  the  Father 
is  well  pleased.  And  He  says  "  Behold,  I  am 
in  the  midst  of  you  as  he  that  serveth."1  Ser- 
vice was  the  joy  and  crown  of  His  life.  Service 
was  the  refreshment  and  the  strength  of  His 
soul,  the  angel's  food,  the  "meat  to  eat"  of 
which  His  disciples  did  not  know.2 
The  disciple  Was  not  this  the  lesson  that  He  was  always 
his  Lord.  teaching  them  by  practice  and  by  precept,  that 
they  must  be  like  Him  if  they  would  belong 
to  Him,  that  they  must  share  His  service  if 
they  would  share  His  election!  "I  have  ap- 
peared unto  thee  for  this  purpose,"  He  said 
to  Saul,  "to  make  thee  a  servant  ^vTrrjperrjv^  a 
rower  in  the  ship),  and  a  witness  both  of  those 
things  which  thou  hast  seen  and  of  the  things 

1  St.  Luke  xxii.  27. 

2  St.  John  iv.  32. 


Service  307 

in  the  which  I  will  appear  unto  thee."1  The 
vision  of  Christ  is  the  call  to  service.  And  if 
Paul  had  not  been  obedient  to  the  heavenly 
vision  could  Saul  have  made  his  calling  and 
election  sure  ?  But  he  answered  it  with  a  noble 
faith.  "It  pleased  God  to  reveal  His  son  in 
me  in  order  that  I  might  preach  him  among 
the  nations."*2  Henceforward,  wherever  he 
might  be,  among  his  friends  in  Cilicia,  in  the 
dungeon  at  Philippi,  on  the  doomed  vessel 
drifting  across  the  storm-tossed  Adriatic,  in 
the  loneliness  of  his  Roman  prison,  this  was 
the  one  object  of  his  life,  to  be  a  faithful  ser- 
vant of  Christ,  and  therefore,  as  Christ  was,  a 
faithful  servant  of  mankind.3 

How  can  we  interpret  Christ's  parables,  with-  Parables  of 
out  this  truth?  The  parables  of  the  Pounds 
and  the  Talents  are  both  pictures  of  election 
to  service.  They  both  exhibit  the  sovereignty 
of  God  in  distributing  His  gifts ;  they  both 
turn  upon  the  idea  of  man's  accountability  for 
receiving  and  using  them;  and  they  both  declare 
that  the  reward  will  be  proportioned  to  fidel- 
ity in  serving.  The  nature  and  meaning  of 
this  is  explained  by  Christ  in  His  great  descrip- 
tion of  the  judgment,  which  immediately  fol- 
lows the  parable  of  the  Talents  in  St.  Matthew's 
i  Acts  xxvi.  16.  2  Gal.  i.  16.  »  2  Cor.  iv.  5. 


308  Service 

Gospel.1     Many  of  those  who  have  known  Him 
will  be  rejected  at  last  because  they  have  not 
served  their  fellow-men.     Many  of  those  who 
have  not  known  Him  will  be  accepted  because 
they  have   ministered   lovingly,  though   igno- 
rantly,  to  the  wants  and  sorrows  of  the  world. 
Service,  the    Service  is  the  key-note  of  the  heavenly  king- 
t he  king-       dom,  and  he  who  will  not  strike  that  note  shall 
dom.  have  no  part  in  the  music.     The  King  in  the 

parable  of  the  Wedding  Feast2  chose  and  called 
his  servants,  not  to  sit  down  at  ease  in  the 
palace,  but  to  go  out  into  the  highways  and 
bid  every  one  that  they  met,  to  come  to  the 
marriage.  And  if  one  of  those  servants  had 
refused  or  betrayed  his  mission,  if  he  had  neg- 
lected his  Master's  business,  and  sat  down  on 
the  steps  of  the  palace  or  walked  pleasantly  in 
the  garden  until  the  supper  was  ready,  do  you 
suppose  that  he  would  have  found  a  place  or  a 
welcome  at  the  feast?  His  soul  would  have 
stood  naked  and  ashamed  without  the  wedding- 
garment  of  love.  For  this  is  the  nature  of 
God's  kingdom,  that  a  selfish  religion  abso- 
lutely unfits  a  man  from  entering  or  enjoying 
it.  Its  gate  is  so  strangely  strait  that  a  man 
cannot  pass  through  it  if  he  desires  and  tries 

1  St.  Matt.  xxv.  31-46. 

2  St.  Matt.  xxii.  1-13. 


Service  309 

* 
to  come  alone ;  but  if  he  will  bring  others  with 

him,  it  is  wide  enough  and  to  spare. 

Who  seeks  for  heaven  alone  to  save  his  soul, 
May  keep  the  path,  but  will  not  reach  the  goal ; 
While  he  who  walks  in  love  may  wander  far, 
Yet  God  will  bring  him  where  the  blessed  are. 

How  wonderfully  all  this  comes  out  in  the  The  prayer 
great  intercessory  prayer  of  Christ  at  the  last  °si™t  * 
supper.1  That  prayer  is  the  last  and  highest 
utterance  of  the  love  wherewith  Christ,  having 
loved  His  own  which  were  in  the  world,  loved 
them  unto  the  end.  He  prays  for  His  chosen 
ones  :  "  I  pray  for  them  :  I  pray  not  for  the 
world  but  for  those  whom  Thou  hast  given  Me." 
14  Holy  Father,  keep  them  in  Thy  name  which 
Thou  hast  given  Me,  that  they  may  be  one  even 
as  We  are.  For  their  sakes  I  consecrate  Myself, 
that  they  themselves  also  may  be  consecrated 
in  truth.  Neither  for  these  only  do  I  pray,  but 
for  them  also  that  believe  on  Me  through  their 
word ;  that  they  may  all  be  one,  even  as  Thou, 
Father,  art  in  Me,  and  I  in  Thee,  that  they  also 
may  be  in  Us  ;  that  the  world  may  believe  that 
Thou  didst  send  Me."  How  the  prayer  rises, 
like  some  celestial  music,  through  all  the  inter- 
woven notes  of  different  fellowships,  the  fellow- 
ship of  the  Father  with  the  Son,  the  fellowship 

i  St.  John  xvii. 


310  Service 

of  the  Master  with  the  disciples,  the  fellowship 
of  the  disciples  with  each  other,  until  at  last  it 
strikes  the  grand  chord  of  universal  love.  Not 
for  the  world  Christ  prays,  but  for  the  disciples 
in  the  world,  in  order  that  they  may  pray  for 
the  world,  and  serve  the  world,  and  draw  the 
world  to  faith  in  Him.  And  so,  in  truth^  while 
He  prays  thus  for  His  disciples,  He  does  pray 
for  the  whole  world.  Circle  beyond  circle,  orb 
beyond  orb,  like  waves  upon  water,  like  light 
from  the  sun,  the  prayer,  the  faith,  the  conse- 
crating power  spread  from  that  upper  room 
until  they  embrace  all  mankind  in  the  sweep  of 
the  divine  intercession.  The  special,  personal, 
elective  love  of  Christ  for  His  own  is  not 
exclusive  ;  it  is  magnificently  and  inimitably 
inclusive.  He  loved  His  disciples  into  loving 
their  fellow-men.  He  lifted  them  into  union 
with  God  ;  but  He  did  not  lift  them  out  of 
union  with  the  world  ;  and  every  tie  that 
bound  them  to  humanity,  every  friendship, 
every  fellowship,  every  link  of  human  inter- 
course, was  to  be  a  channel  for  the  grace  of 
God  that  bringeth  salvation,  that  it  might 
appear  to  all  men.1 
Christ's  This  is  Christ's  ideal  :  a  radiating  gospel : 

ideal'  1-1  r,          -  .  , 

a  kingdom  of  overflowing,  conquering  love  ;   a 
i  Titus  ii.  11. 


Service  311 

church  that  is  elected  to  be  a  means  of  blessing 
to  the  human  race.  This  ideal  is  the  very 
nerve  of  Christian  missions,  at  home  and 
abroad,  the  effort  to  preach  the  gospel  to  every 
creature,  not  merely  because  the  world  needs 
to  receive  it,  but  because  the  Church  will  be 
rejected  and  lost  unless  she  gives  it.  'Tis  not 
so  much  a  question  for  us  whether  any  of  our 
fellow-men  can  be  saved  without  Christianity. 
The  question  is  whether  we  can  be  saved  if  we 
are  willing  to  keep  our  Christianity  to  our- 
selves. And  the  answer  is,  No  !  The  only 
religion  that  can  really  do  anything  for  me,  is 
the  religion  that  makes  me  want  to  do  some- 
thing for  you.  The  missionary  enterprise  is 
not  the  Church's  afterthought.  It  is  Christ's 
forethought.  It  is  not  secondary  and  optional. 
It  is  primary  and  vital.  Christ  has  put  it  into 
the  very  heart  of  His  gospel.  We  cannot 
really  see  Him,  or  know  Him,  or  love  Him, 
unless  we  see  and  know  and  love  His  ideal  for 
us,  the  ideal  which  is  embodied  in  the  law  of 
election  to  service. 

For   this   reason  the  spirit  of   missions  has  Missions 
always  been  the  saving  and  purifying  power 
of  the  Christian  brotherhood.     Whenever  and  ity. 
wherever  this  ideal  has  shined  clear  and  strong, 


312 


Service 


Missions 
emancipated 
the  early 
church. 


it  has  revealed  the  figure  of  the  Christ  more 
simply  and  more  brightly  to  His  disciples,  and 
guided  their  feet  more  closely  in  the  way  of 
peace  and  joy  and  love. 

In  the  first  century  it  was  the  spirit  of  for- 
eign missions  that  saved  the  Church  from  the 
bondage  of  Jewish  formalism.  Paul  and  his 
companions  could  not  live  without  telling  the 
world  that  Christ  Jesus  came  to  seek  and  save 
the  lost — lost  nations  as  well  as  lost  souls. 
The  heat  of  that  desire  burned  up  the  fetters 
of  bigotry  like  ropes  of  straw.  The  gospel 
could  not  be  preached  to  all  men  as  a  form  of 
Judaism.  But  the  gospel  must  be  preached  to 
all  men.  Therefore  it  could  not  be  a  form  of 
Judaism.  The  argument  was  irresistible.  It 
was  the  missionary  spirit  that  made  the  Eman- 
cipation Proclamation  of  Christianity. 
Missions  Jn  the  dark  ages  the  heart  of  religion  was 

gospel  pure,  kept  beating  by  the  missionary  zeal  and  efforts 
of  such  men  as  St.  Patrick,  and  St.  Augustine, 
and  Columba  and  Aiden,  and  Boniface,  and 
Anskar,  who  brought  the  gospel  to  our  own 
fierce  ancestors  in  the  northern  parts  of  Europe 
and  wild  islands  of  the  sea.  In  the  middle 
ages  it  was  the  men  who  founded  the  great 
missionary  orders,  St.  Francis  and  St.  Dominic, 
who  did  most  to  revive  the  faith  and  purify 


Service  313 

,* 

the  life  of  the  Church.  And  when  the  Refor- 
mation had  lost  its  first  high  impulse,  and 
sunken  into  the  slough  of  dogmatism ;  when 
the  Protestant  churches  had  become  entangled 
in  political  rivalries  and  theological  controver- 
sies, while  the  hosts  of  philosophic  infidelity 
and  practical  godlessness  were  sweeping  in 
apparent  triumph  over  Europe  and  America, 
it  was  the  spirit  of  foreign  missions  that 
sounded  the  reveilU  to  the  Christian  world, 
and  lit  the  signal  fire  of  a  new  era  —  an  era  of 
simpler  creed,  more  militant  hope,  and  broader 
love  —  an  era  of  the  Christianity  of  Christ. 
The  desire  of  preaching  the  gospel  to  every 
creature  has  drawn  the  Church  back  from  her 
bewilderments  and  sophistications  closer  to  the 
simplicity  that  is  in  Christ,  and  so  closer  to  that 
divine  ideal  of  Christian  unity  in  which  all 
believers  shall  be  one  in  Him.  You  cannot 
preach  a  complicated  gospel,  an  abstract  gos- 
pel, to  every  creature.  You  cannot  preach  a 
gospel  that  is  cast  in  an  inflexible  mould  of 
thought,  like  Calvinism,  or  Arminianism,  or 
Lutheranism,  to  every  creature.  It  will  not 
fit.  But  the  gospel,  the  only  gospel  which  is 
divine,  must  be  preached  to  every  creature. 
Therefore,  these  moulds  and  forms  cannot  be  an 
essential  part  of  it.  And  so  we  work  our  way 


314 


Service 


One  mes- 
sage and 
many  ways 
of  preach- 
ing it. 


back  out  of  the  tangle  of  human  speculations 
toward  that  pure,  clear,  living  message  which 
Paul  carried  over  from  Asia  to  Europe,  the 
good  news  that  God  is  in  Christ,  reconciling 
the  world  to  Himself. 

This  is  the  gospel  for  an  age  of  doubt,  and 
for  all  ages  wherein  men  sin  and  suffer,  question 
and  despair,  thirst  after  righteousness  and  long 
for  heaven.  There  are  a  thousand  ways  of 
preaching  it,  with  lips  and  lives,  in  words  and 
deeds  ;  and  all  of  them  are  good,  provided  only 
the  preacher  sets  his  whole  manhood  earnestly 
and  loyally  to  his  great  task  of  bringing  home 
the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus  to  the  needs  of  his 
brother-men.  The  forms  of  Christian  preach- 
ing are  manifold.  The  spirit  is  one  and  the 
same.  New  illustrations  and  arguments  and 
applications  must  be  found  for  every  age  and 
every  race.  But  the  truth  to  be  illuminated 
and  applied  is  as  changeless  as  Jesus  Christ 
Himself,  in  whose  words  it  is  uttered  and  in 
whose  life  it  is  incarnate,  once  and  forever. 
The  types  of  pulpit  eloquence  are  as  different 
as  the  characters  and  languages  of  men.  But 
all  of  them  are  vain  and  worthless  as  sound- 
ing brass  and  tinkling  cymbals,  unless  they 
speak  directly  and  personally  and  joyfully 
of  that  divine  love  which  is  revealed  in 


Service  315 

:* 

Christ  in  order  that  all  who  will  believe  in 
it  may  be  saved  from  doubt  and  sin  and  self- 
ishness in  the  everlasting  kingdom  of  the  lov- 
ing God. 

This  is  the  gospel  which  began  to  shine  The  only 
through  the  shadows  of  this  earth  at  Bethlehem,  gospe 
where  the  Son  of  God  became  the  child  of  Mary, 
and  was  manifested  in  perfect  splendour  on 
Calvary,  where  the  Good  Shepherd  laid  down 
His  life  for  the  sheep.  For  eighteen  centuries 
this  simple,  personal,  consistent  gospel  has  been 
the  leading  light  of  the  best  desires  and  hopes 
and  efforts  of  humanity.  It  is  the  one  bright 
star  that  shines,  serene  and  steady,  through  the 
confusion  of  our  perplexed,  struggling,  doubting 
age.  He  who  sees  that  star,  sees  God.  He 
who  follows  that  star,  shall  never  perish.  It  has 
dawned  upon  my  heart  so  clearly  and  so  con- 
vincingly that  the  one  thing  I  have  cared  and 
tried  to  do  in  these  lectures  is  to  make  it  plain 
that  this  is  the  essence  of  Christianity,  the  only 
gospel  that  is  worth  preaching  in  all  ways  to 
all  men,  that  Jesus  Christ  is  God  who  loves  us 
in  order  that  we  may  learn  to  love  one  another. 
But  if  I  have  failed  to  make  this  view  of  reli- 
gion clear,  if  an  imperfect  utterance  has  be- 
clouded and  obscured  the  message,  at  least  let 
this  last  word  be  plain,  at  least  let  nothing  hide 


316  Service 

from  your  soul  or  from  mine,  this  supreme, 
saving  truth  of  election  to  service. 

The  vision  of  God  in  Christ  is  the  greatest 
gift  in  the  world.  It  binds  those  who  receive 
it  to  the  highest  and  most  consecrated  life.  To 
behold  that  vision  is  to  be  one  of  God's  elect. 
But  the  result  of  that  election  depends  upon 
the  giving  of  ourselves  to  serve  the  world  for 
Jesus'  sake.  Noblesse  oblige. 
Believers  Let  us  not  miss  the  meaning  of  Christianity 

in  Christ,  -i       i    •  TTT 

the  servants    as   ^   comes   to   us   and    claims   us.      We   are 
of  God's  love  chosen,  we  are  called,  not  to  die  and  be  saved, 

to  the  whole    ,  _  . 

world.  DU^  to  live  and  save  others.      Ine  promise  ot 

Christ  is  a  task  and  a  reward.  For  us  there  is 
a  place  in  the  army  of  God,  a  mansion  in  the 
heaven  of  peace,  a  crown  in  the  hall  of  victory. 
But  whether  we  shall  fill  that  place  and  dwell 
in  that  mansion  and  wear  that  crown,  depends 
upon  our  willingness  to  deny  ourselves  and  take 
up  our  cross  and  follow  Jesus.  Whatever  our 
birthright  and  descent,  whatever  our  name 
and  profession,  whatever  our  knowledge  of 
Christian  doctrine  and  our  performance  of 
Christian  worship  may  be,  —  when  the  great 
host  is  gathered  in  the  City  of  God,  with 
tattered  flags  and  banners  glorious  in  their 
bloodstained  folds,  with  armour  dinted  and 
swords  worn  in  the  conflict,  with  wounds  which 


Service  +      317 

tell  of  courage  and  patient  endurance  and 
deathless  loyalty,  —  when  the  celestial  knight- 
hood is  assembled  at  the  Round  Table  of  the 
King,  our  name  will  be  unspoken,  our  crown 
will  hang  above  an  empty  chair,  and  our  place 
will  be  given  to  another,  unless  we  accept  now, 
with  sincere  hearts,  the  only  gospel  which  can 
deliver  us  from  the  inertia  of  doubt  and  the 
selfishness  of  sin.  We  must  enter  into  life  by 
giving  ourselves  to  the  personal  Christ  who  un- 
veils the  love  of  the  Father  in  a  Human  Life, 
and  calls  us  with  Divine  Authority  to  submit 
our  Liberty  to  God's  Sovereignty  in  blessed 
and  immortal  Service  to  our  fellow-men  for 
Christ's  sake. 


INDEX 


Abbott,     Lyman,     Christian      Balfour,  Hon.  A.  J.,  A  De- 


Thought,  410  note  ;  The 
Evolution  of  Christianity, 
417  note. 

Absolutism,  difficulties  of,  263. 

Acker  man,  L.,  Ma  Vie,  quoted, 
250. 

Acts,  The,  of  the  Apostles,  62. 

Adam,  a  new,  286. 

Adams,  Professor,  12. 

Aiden,  312. 

Altruism,  37,  38. 

Ambrose  of  Milan,  101. 

America,  the  new  crusade  in, 
37. 

Ananias,  100. 

Antoninus  Pius,  104. 

Aquinas,  Thomas,  50,  141. 

Aristotle,  73. 

Arius,  110. 

Armstrong,  Prof.  A.  C.,  Jr., 34. 

Arnold,  Matthew,  quoted,  19. 

Art,  Christ  in,  128;  early 
Christian,  128. 

Atonement,  the  value  of  the, 
162. 

Authority  is  what  the  age  de- 
mands, 198. 


fence  of  Philosophic  Doubt, 
48, 325, 340,  342  notes ;  Foun- 
dations of  a  Belief,  52. 

Baptized  fatalism,  217. 

Barry,  Alfred,  Some  Lights 
of  Science  on  the  Faith,  68, 
371  note. 

Baudelaire,  Charles,  18,  29. 

Baxter,  Richard,  50. 

Beauchamp,  Henry,  Thoughts 
of  an  Automaton,  210. 

Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  73. 

Berthelot,  M.,  13. 

Bettelheim,  Anton,  Cosmopo- 
lis,  334  note. 

Beyschlags,  New  Testament 
Theology,  62,  359,  396,  399, 
416  notes. 

Bible :  bending  the  Bible  to  fit 
definitions,  132. 

Biblical  scholarship  (modern), 
143. 

Boniface,  312. 

Bourget,  Paul,  Psychologic 
Contemporaine,  5  note,  17, 
28,  30,  324  note,  333  note; 
Cosmopolis,  17. 


319 


320 


Index 


Bradford,  Amory  H.,  Hered- 
ity and  Christian  Prob- 
lems, 74,  353  note,  411  note. 

Brain,  the  organ  of  the  mind, 
221. 

Brainerd,  David,  79. 

Brooks,  Bishop,  54 ;  Sermon 
for  Trinity  Sunday,  112. 

Browning,  Robert,  33;  Saul, 
quoted,  164. 

Bruce,  Prof.  A.  B.,  St.  Paul's 
Conception  of  Christianity, 
440  note;  The  Humiliation 
of  Christ,  134 ;  Kingdom  of 
God,  176, 181. 

Bushnell,  Horace,  The  Divin- 
ity of  Christ,  125. 

Butler,  Bishop,  7,  8  note,  50. 

Byzantine  art,  130. 

Calvary  is  victory,  278. 

Calvin,  John,  50,  73,  305. 

Calvinism,  241. 

Candlish,  Dr.  James  S.,  King- 
dom of  God,  176. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  16;  Heroes, 
86  note. 

Catacombs,  pictures  of  Christ 
in,  129. 

Cayley,  Professor,  12. 

Chalcedon,  155. 

Charity,  the  new,  170;  true, 
299. 

Chillingworth,  William,  50. 

Christ,  Gospel  of,  54 ;  the  per- 
son of,  58;  the  reality  of, 
58 ;  was  his  own  Gospel,  60 ; 
the  life  of  the  Church  flowed 
from,  62;  the  influence  of 
Christianity  came  from,  64; 
the  magic  of  His  name  64; 


the  personal  power  of  Christ 
continues,  66;  the  central 
figure  of  Christianity,  66; 
the  mystery  of,  69;  the 
effect  of  His  presence,  70; 
unique,  72;  solitary  in  his- 
tory, 73;  sinless,  74;  the 
power  of  His  cross,  76;  to 
know  Him  the  one  thing 
needful,  78;  the  answer  to 
sceptics,  87;  the  creator  of 
Christianity,  88;  who  then 
is  Christ,  89;  the  historic 
answer,  90 ;  Godhead  slowly 
revealed,  90 ;  a  supreme  au- 
thority Jto  judge  the  world, 
95;  the  Son  of  God,  96;  the 
new  theology,  105 ;  a  per- 
sonal revelation  of  the  Di- 
vine Being,  106;  His  life 
without  admitting  His  di- 
vinity, 118 ;  divine  love,  120 ; 
is  God  with  us,  121;  hu- 
manity, 126;  in  art,  128; 
portraits  of,  129;  portrait, 
Byzantine,  130;  hiding  the 
face  of,  132 ;  manhood  a  vest- 
ure, 138;  of  the  Gospels, 
144;  of  the  Epistles,  145; 
the  new  study  of,  154 ;  find- 
ing of  the  human  Christ, 
164 ;  teaching,  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  the  keynote  of, 
174;  the  doctrine  of,  182; 
record  of  His  teaching,  184 ; 
words  and  life  interpret  each 
other,  186;  teaching,  the 
authority  of,  189;  teaching, 
the  originality  of,  190; 
teaching,  universal,  193; 
doctrine  small  in  compass, 


Index 


321 


193;  doctrine  never  fails, 
194 ;  the  simplicity  that  is  in 
His  teaching,  196;  loyalty 
to  His  teaching,  197 ;  the  su- 
preme authority,  199;  our 
great  task  to  learn  his  creed, 
200 ;  says  liberty  is  real,  226 ; 
His  preaching  a  Gospel  of 
liberty,  227 ;  is  God's  call  to 
faith,  232;  on  heredity,  233; 
our  helper,  236 ;  doctrine  of 
election,  305 ;  parables,  307 ; 
ideal,  310. 

Christhood,  what  is  meant  by 
the,  92. 

Christian  leadership,  need 
of,  38 ;  belief,  the  new  line 
of,  92;  doctrine  and  the 
Deity  of  Christ,  108;  view 
of  God  and  world,  361 
note ;  preacher,  the  duty 
of,  316. 

Christianity  and  Christ,  59; 
the  rock  of,  119;  practical, 
171 ;  evidences  of,  192 ;  and 
communism,  297. 

Christians  despised  for  wor- 
shipping Christ,  104. 

Christless  man  can  never 
preach  Christ,  202. 

Christology,  modern  examples 
of  false,  136. 

Clarke,  Samuel,  50. 

Clerk-Maxwell,  Professor,  12. 

Clifford,  W.  K.,  15,  30,  208. 

College  settlements,  38. 

Columba,  312. 

Conscience,  the  indomitable, 
35. 

Couperus,  Louis,  Destiny,  213. 

Crassus,  73. 

2o 


Creed,  The,  of  Christ,  200;  of 

necessity,  212. 
Crispi,  Signer,  34. 
Crosby,    Howard,    The   True 

Humanity  of  Christ,  quoted, 

155. 
Cross:  power  of  the  cross  of 

Christ,  76. 

Crusade  against  scepticism,  37. 
Cudworth,  Ralph,  50. 

Darwin,  the  testimony  of  a 
doubter,  67. 

Deity  of  Christ,  the  strength 
of  the  Gospel,  122. 

De  Pressense',  Je'sws  Christ,  162. 

Desjardins,  Paul,  18,  27,  36. 

Determinism  proved,  218. 

Devout  men  of  pure  science, 
12. 

Disciple,  The,  must  be  as  his 
Lord,  306. 

Discrimination,  260. 

Divine,  The,  Orderliness,  255 ; 
immanence,  255 ;  omnipo- 
tence self-limited  in  action, 
265 ;  omniscience,  268. 

Divinity  of  Jesus  Christ,  The, 
355  note. 

Doctrine  of  Christ,  the  basis  of 
His  conduct,  187 ;  attacked, 
7. 

Dogmas  darken  the  view  of 
Christ,  131. 

Dogmatic  theology  and  mod- 
ern doubt,  50. 

Dogmatics,  renaissance  of,  51. 

Dorner,  History  of  Protestant 
Theology,  378  note. 

Doubt  not  a  crime  but  a 
malady,  23. 


322 


Index 


Doubting  age,  6. 

Du  Bois,  Keymoud,  13. 

Da  Maurier,  George,  18. 

Earth,  militant  on,  268. 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  50,  218, 
305. 

Election,  the  doctrine  of,  302 ; 
perverted  in  human  theol- 
ogy, 304. 

Eliot,  George,  17,  25. 

Emerson,  16. 

Endurance,  strength  of,  275. 

English  sceptics,  25. 

Ephrem  Syrus,  101, 133. 

Epistles,  The,  of  Paul,  62. 

Erasmus,  quoted  in  Gore,  142. 

Everlasting,  The,  Reality  of 
Religion,  329  note. 

Evil,  origin  of  evil  not  in  God, 
266;  power  of,  272;  strug- 
gle against,  274. 

Fairhairn,  A.  M.,  The  Place 
of  Christ  in  Modern  The- 
ology, 51,  153,  357  note,  364 
note,  393  note. 

Faith  not  changed  but  en- 
larged, 10 ;  sorrow  of  losing, 
25 ;  the  renaissance  of,  33 ; 
a  starting-point  for,  53 ;  the 
original  process  of,  91 ;  three 
vital  points  made  plain  to 
faith,  151;  these  points  de- 
fended, 152. 

False  interpretations  of 
Christ's  teaching,  175. 

Fatalism,  modern,  206. 

Felicity,  the  secret  of,  293. 

Ferrers,  Professor,  12. 

Fiction,  gloomy,  17. 


Fisher,  Prof.  G.  P.,  219; 
Grounds  of  Theistic  and 
Christian  Belief,  62  note, 
424  note. 

Fiske,  John,  247 ;  Destiny  of 
Man,  326  note  ;  Idea  of  God, 
327  note. 

Fitzgerald,  Edward,  Rubdiydt 
of  Omar  Khayyam,  quoted, 
217. 

Flaubert,  29 ;  Madame B ovary, 
17. 

Foreknowledge,  269. 

Foster,  John,  5. 

France,  new  crusade  in,  36. 

Fraternity  better  than  equal- 
ity, 296. 

Free-will,  219;  is  possible,  225. 

French  sceptics,  27. 

Froude,  16. 

Gibbon,  Edward,  Roman  Em- 
pire, 83. 

Gilder,  Richard  Watson,  quo- 
tation, 79. 

Gladden,  Washington,  Ruling 
Ideas  of  the  Present  Age, 
434  note. 

God  seen  through  Christ,  107 ; 
a  personal,  117;  the  true 
view  of,  160;  is  love,  161; 
suffers  with  and  for  us,  162 ; 
helps  those  who  help  them- 
selves, 238;  the  Father,  our 
Captain,  251 ;  in  His  world, 
254;  reign  of  God  through 
law,  258 ;  is  a  fair  master, 
265;  the  rock  of  our  trust, 
273;  in  history,  276;  and 
truth,  277 ;  is  God  unjust,  302. 

Godet,  154. 


Index 


323 


God's  sympathy,  doubts  dis- 
solve in  the  thought  of,  163 ; 
sovereignty,  two  spheres  of, 
267. 

Goodness,  power  of,  272» 

Gordon,  Charles,  79. 

Gordon,  Dr.  George  A.,  The 
Trinity  the  Ground  of  Hu- 
manity, 112;  Christ  of  To- 
day, 52,  342  note,  374  note. 

Gore,  Canon  C.  C.,  135,  136; 
The  Incarnation  of  the  Son 
of  God,  134,  351  note,  366 
note ;  Dissertations,  384 
note,  427  note. 

Gospel,  The,  of  a  Person, 
43;  message  clear  as  light, 
53;  of  a  fact,  55;  of  a 
force,  59;  of  a  Saviour, 
75;  of  the  Incarnation 
adapted  to  this  age,  113; 
A.,  for  the  whole  circle  of 
human  life,  173 ;  the  fourth, 
178. 

Gospels:  the  four  Gospels 
must  be  studied,  177. 

Greer,  David  H. ,  The  Preacher, 
322  note. 

Gregory  the  Great,  102. 

Hadrian,  Emperor,  104. 

Happiness  depends  upon  our 
inward  state,  289 ;  the  secret 
of,  290. 

Hardy,  Thomas,  17 ;  Jude  the 
Obscure,  30. 

Harris,  S.,  The  Self -Revela- 
tion of  God,  51. 

Harris,  George,  Moral  Evolu- 
tion, 436  note. 

Harrison,  Frederic,  15. 


Hartmann,  24,  33;  Religions- 
philosophie  Selbstersetzung 
des  Christenthums,  33 ; 
Philosophie  des  Unbewuss- 
ten,  34. 

Havelock,  Henry,  79. 

Hawthorne,  Nathaniel,  283. 

Hazard,  230. 

Hazzard,  Rowland,  Freedom 
of  Mind  in  Willing,  219. 

Heathen,  testimony  of  the, 
103;  writers,  103. 

Heaven,  triumphant  in,  268. 

Hebrews,  the  epistle  to  the, 
149. 

Hennell,  Charles,  Inquiry 
Concerning  the  Origin  of 
Christianity,  25. 

Heredity  not  final,  222. 

Hilary  of  Poictiers,  101. 

Historical  Christ,  58. 

Hitchcock,  Rev.  Dr.  Roswell 
D.,  A  Complete  Analysis  of 
the  Holy  Bible,  176. 

Hodge,  Charles,  50. 

Hodge,  A.  A.,  Popular  Lect- 
ures, 241. 

Holy  Spirit,  The,  236. 

Homoousia,  155. 

Hooker,  Richard,  50. 

Horton,  R.  F.,  Verbum  Dei, 
322  note. 

Human,  The,  Life  of  the 
Father,  81;  Life  in  God, 
125. 

Humanity,  a  new  relation  to, 
94. 

Hutton,  R.  H.,  27;  Contem- 
porary Thought  and  Think- 
ers, 417  note. 

Huxley,  T.  H.,  15 ;  quoted,  208. 


324 


Index 


Hymns  of  the  Greek  Church, 

101 ;  the  testimony  of,  101. 
Hypnotized,  the  age,  241. 

Ihsen's  plays,  27  note ;  Ghosts, 
214. 

Ignatius,  Epistles  of,  to  the 
Trallians,  377  note. 

Illingworth,  J.  R.,  Personality 
Human  and  Divine,  344 
note,  358. 

Incarnation,  The,  114, 115 ;  his- 
torically consistent,  118 ; 
satisfies  the  human  heart, 
120;  old  definitions  inade- 
quate, 156. 

Inequality  in  the  spiritual 
world,  301. 

Influence  of  Fiction,  332  note. 

Inspiration  of  heroism,  274. 

Irenseus,  quoted,  94,  376  note. 

Jackson,  Dr.  J.  Hughlings,  Dis- 
eases of  Nervous  System,  221. 

James,  William,  Psychology, 
224,  230,  413  note,  414  note. 

Jesus,  search  after,  141 ;  secret 
of,  258;  the  new  Adam,  287. 

Jesus  Christ's  doctrine  small 
in  compass,  193. 

John,  100. 

Jonson,  Ben,  73. 

Joy  is  a  duty,  293. 

Judas,  99. 

Justin  Martyr,  First  Apology, 
quoted,  104 ;  Dialogue  with 
Trypho,  65  note. 

Kant,  210. 

Kelley,  James  P.,  The  Law  of 
Service,  441  note,  443  note. 


Kelvin,  Lord  (Sir  William 
Thomson),  12,  220. 

Kempis,  Thomas  a,  79;  Imi- 
tation of  Christ,  66. 

Kenosis,  the,  147. 

Kepler,  12. 

Ker,  John,  Sermons,  440  note. 

Kidd,  Mr.  Benjamin,  Social 
Evolution,  34. 

Kinship  of  man  to  God,  159. 

Kingdom,  The,  of  heaven  the 
keynote  of  Christ's  teach- 
ing, 174. 

Kingsley,  Charles,  79. 

Kinsley,  William  W.,  Old 
Faiths  and  New  Facts,  431 
note. 

Knowledge,  the  expansion  of, 
11. 

Lacordaire,  Pere,  53. 

La  Farge,  John,  Considera- 
tions on  Painting,  376  note. 

Laplace,  247. 

Latham,  Henry,  Pastor  Pas- 
torum,  61. 

Lentulus,  Epistle  of,  129. 

Lesson  of  encouragement  in 
sufferings  of  doubt,  24. 

Liberty,  sovereignty,  and  ser- 
vice, 206. 

Liberty,  207. 

Liddon,  Canon,  53;  Divinity 
of  Our  Lord,  138. 

Life,  sad  aspect  of,  27;  the 
regnant  idea,  157;  the  un- 
evenness  and  apparent  in- 
justice of  human  life,  284; 
the  compensation  of,  291. 

Lightfoot,  Bishop,  Supernal 
ural  Religion,  62  note. 


Index 


325 


Lincoln,  A.,  118. 

Lisle,  Leconte  de,  18. 

Literature  as  an  index  of  life, 
4;  mirror  of,  and  the  shad- 
ow of  doubt,  15. 

Littre,  Emile,  22. 

Liturgies,  testimony  of  early, 
102. 

Liturgy  of  Protestant  Episco- 
pal Church,  103. 

Lombard,  Peter,  134, 141. 

Lombroso,  45. 

Lord,  The,  of  Hosts,  270. 

Loti,  Pierre,  La  GaliUe,  73 
note,  190. 

Love,  Christ's  divine  love, 
120;  is  the  example  of 
Christ,  161;  thy  neighbour 
as  thyself,  298. 

Lowell,  James  Russell,  The 
Present  Crisis,  quoted,  278. 

Loyalty  to  Christ's  teaching, 
197. 

Lucian,  104. 

Luther,  73. 

Lux  Mundi,  323  note,  363, 
367,  444  note. 

Mabie,  H.  W.,  Essays  on  Nat- 
ure and  Culture,  255. 

McCabe,  L.  D.,  Divine  Nesci- 
ence, 428  note. 

McCheyne,  Robert,  79. 

Man,  meanness  of,  28 ;  to  God, 
kinship  of,  159;  weakness 
of,  234. 

Man's  inhumanity  to  man,  285. 

Marcus  Aurelius,  104. 

Martyn,  Henry,  79. 

Materialism  disavowed  but 
taught,  207. 


Maupassant,  Guy  de,  17, 
215. 

Maurice,  F.  D.,  23. 

Melancholia,  30. 

Melancholy  marionettes,  215. 

Melancthon,  73. 

Metaphysical  negation,  14. 

Mill,  J.  S.,  Essays  on  Religion, 
72  note. 

Miracles  not  against  nature, 
257. 

Misery,  source  of  human,  not 
in  poverty,  but  in  a  bad 
heart,  290. 

Misoneism,  45. 

Missionary  zeal,  312. 

Missions  essential  to  Chris- 
tianity, 311;  and  the  early 
church,  312;  keep  the  Gos- 
pel pure,  312. 

Momerie,  A.  W.,  Personality, 
346  note. 

Moody,  Dwight  L.,  54. 

Moral  problem,  205;  judg- 
ments assume  liberty,  223. 

Morley,  John,  16. 

Moxom,  Philip  S.,  From  Jer- 
usalem to  Nicsea,  370  note. 

Mozley,  J.  B.,  Ruling  Ideas  in 
Early  Ages,  425  note. 

Mulf  ord,  The  Republic  of  God, 
51. 

Miiller,  Julius,  153. 

Munger,  T.  T.,  The  Freedom 
of  Faith,  401  note. 

Myers,  F.  W.  H.,  26,  46;  Sci- 
ence and  a  Future  Life, 
337  note,  339  note. 

Napoleon,  73. 
Newton,  12. 


326 


Index 


Nordeau,  Max,  Degeneration, 
45,  404  note. 

Novels,  modern,  5;  of  natu- 
ralism, 17. 

Offices  of  the  Church,  63. 

Oriental  religions,  238. 

Orr,  James,  The  Christian 
View  of  God  and  the  World, 
34,  51,  336  note,  395  note. 

Our  great  task  to  learn  His 
creed,  200. 

Owen,  John,  50. 

Pagan  poets,  33. 

Pain,  24;  gives  argument  to 
hope,  31. 

Paley,  Dr.,  10. 

Parables  of  Christ,  307. 

Pascal,  28,  36. 

Patience,  rewarded  in  the  life 
to  come,  295. 

Patteson,  Coleridge,  79. 

Peace  on  earth,  292. 

Pearson,  C.  H.,  The  Causes  of 
Pessimism,  409  note;  Na- 
tional Life  and  Character, 
337  note. 

Personal  equation  of  the  age,  3. 

Personality  the  foundation  of 
all  sensation,  56. 

Personal  responsibility,  208. 

Pessimism,  21. 

Peter,  100. 

Pharisees,  The,  taught  fate, 
228. 

Philosophy,  the  value  of,  to 
Christian  preacher,  49. 

Physiognomy  of  the  age,  6. 

Plato,  73. 

Pliny  the  Younger,  86,  103. 


Poetry,  despondent,  18. 

Pompey,  73. 

Pope's  Essay  on  Man,  quoted, 
252. 

Portraits  of  Christ,  129. 

Prayer,  235;  of  intercession, 
309. 

"Preach  Christ,"  169;  what 
does  it  mean,  172. 

Preacher,  The,  who  wishes  to 
speak  to  this  age  must  read 
many  books,  6 ;  how  can  he 
serve  the  present  age,  43; 
first  and  greatest  duty  to 
preach  Christ,  55. 

Preachers  of  Christ,  the  needs 
of,  239 ;  to  proclaim  liberty 
in  Christ,  242. 

Preaching  with  power,  53 ;  the 
Gospel  for  an  age  of  doubt, 
314. 

Predestination,  232. 

Prime,  W.  C.,  Along  New  Eng- 
land Roads,  420  note. 

Probation  of  men,  270. 

Problematische  Naturen,  17. 

Psychical  research,  46. 

Psychological  romances,  17; 
problem,  205. 

Psychology,  testimony  of  mod- 
ern, 224. 

Purves,  Rev.  G.  T.,  The  In- 
carnation Biblically  Con- 
sidered, 415  note. 

Questioning  spirit  of  to-day,  8. 

Rationalism,  thorough-going, 

48. 

Reading,  value  of  general,  5. 
Redemption,  237. 


Index 


327 


Reformation,  spirit  of,  142. 

Religion  of  the  Undergradu- 
ate, 326  note. 

Renan,  16,  29,  39. 

Resurrection  of  Christ,  98. 

Reubelt,  Scripture  Doctrine  of 
the  Person  of  Christ,  379 
note,  381  note,  384  note,  386 
note. 

Revelation,  a  new,  191. 

Robertson,  Frederick,  79. 

Rod,  M.  Edouard,  34;  Idees 
Morales  du  Temps  Present, 
403  note. 

Romanes,  George  John,  12 
note,  34,  114. 

Routh,  Professor,  12. 

Ruskin,  John,  258. 

Russian  sceptics,  30. 

Rutherford,  Samuel,  79. 

Saints,  Anselm,  50;  Athana- 
sius,  109;  Augustine,  32, 
50,  111,  305,  312 ;  Sermons 
on  the  New  Testament 
Lessons,  392  note. 

Bernard,  79. 

Chrysostom,  53 ;  the  prayer 
of,  103,  133. 

Clement,  First  Epistle  of, 
quoted,  107. 

Dominic,  312. 

Francis  of  Assisi,  53,  79, 
312. 

James,  liturgy  of,  102. 

John,  53;  the  kingdom  in, 
178;  Gospel  of  love,  181. 

Mark,  liturgy  of,  102. 

Patrick,  312. 

Peter,  53. 

Paul,  53,  78,  307;  view  of 


Christ,  146;  Epistle  of 
Christ's  brotherhood,  148; 
on  freedom,  240. 

Saints  called  to  endure  heavy 
trials,  274. 

Salmon,  Dr.,  Introduction  to 
the  New  Testament,  62  note. 

Saul  of  Tarsus,  99. 

Savonarola,  53. 

Scepticism,  causes  of,  9;  at- 
tributed to  the  growth  of 
our  conception  of  the  phy- 
sical magnitude  of  the  uni- 
verse, 11 ;  in  modern  litera- 
ture, 24. 

Sceptic's  account  of  the  spread 
of  Christianity,  83. 

Scherer,  16. 

Schopenhauer,  24. 

Science  and  religion,  9;  not 
hostile  to  religion,  9;  arro- 
gance of,  falsely  so-called, 
12 ;  the  boundaries  of,  247. 

Scott,  Sir  Walter,  6. 

Scudder,  Vida  D.,  The  Life  of 
the  Spirit  in  Modern  Eng- 
lish Poets,  33. 

"  Sea  Dreams,"  by  Tennyson, 
quoted,  20. 

Sermons,  lay,  15. 

Sermon  on  the  Mount,  93. 

Service,  283;  the  keynote  of 
the  kingdom,  308. 

Shairp,  John  Campbell,  quota- 
tion, 202. 

Shakespeare,  73. 

Shedd,  Dr.  W.  G.  T.,  50;  Dog- 
matic Theology,  137. 

Shelley,  quoted,  16,  25. 

Signs  of  reaction,  33;  of  the 
times,  39. 


328 


Index 


Simplicity,  The,  that  is  in 
Christ,  196. 

Sin  is  the  work  of  an  enemy, 
267. 

Sinlessness  of  Christ,  74, 

Social  regeneration,  300. 

Socrates,  73. 

Source,  The,  of  Authority, 
167. 

Source,  The,  of  authority  in 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,  169. 

Sovereignty,  247 ;  the  ques- 
tion of,  249;  mechanical, 
260;  embraces  liberty,  271. 

Spielhagen,  17. 

Spirit,  the  questioning,  7. 

Stalker,  James,  Imago  Christi, 
195  note. 

Stendhal,  Rouge  et  Noir,  29. 

Stephen,  the  martyr,  99. 

Stephen,  Sir  J.  Fitzjames,  Lib- 
erty, Equality,  and  Frater- 
nity, 55,  343  note. 

Stevens,  George  B.,  The  Paul- 
*  ine  Theology,  65  note,  100, 
352  note. 

Stokes,  Sir  George,  12. 

Strauss,  David  Friedrich,  32 
note. 

Stryker,  M.  W.,  Hamilton, 
Lincoln,  and  other  ad- 
dresses, 438  note. 

Sully,  James,  24  note ;  Pessi- 
mism, 332  note. 

Sympathy  with  doubt,  22 ;  of 
the  age,  284. 

Synoptics,  The,  178. 

Taine,  29. 

Tait,  Professor,  12. 

Talbot's  Analysis,  176. 


Tennyson,  quoted,  19,  33 ;  The 
Higher  Pantheism,  quoted, 
159. 

Theological  fortification,  49; 
problem,  205. 

Theology,  the  future  of,  51; 
current  theology  at  fault, 
150 ;  has  lost  sight  of  Christ's 
humanity,  126. 

Thomson,  James,  The  City  of 
Dreadful  Night,  31. 

Thomson,  Dr.  W.  H.,  Material- 
ism and  Modern  Physiology 
of  the  Nervous  System,  221. 

Thompson,  Joseph  P.,  The 
Tlieology  of  Christ  from 
His  own  Words,  397  note. 

Three  great  problems,  205; 
great  truths,  206. 

Todhunter,  Professor,  12. 

Trask,  Katrina,  A  Night  and 
Morning  in  Jerusalem,  quot- 
ed, 185. 

Trinity,  111 ;  the  doctrine  of, 
108. 

Truth,  a  new  power  to  reveal, 
93. 

Tyndall.  Professor,  15,  208. 

Unbelief,  respectful,  8. 
Universe,  the  magnitude  of,  11. 
Unveiling,  The,  of  the  Father, 
83. 

Van  Dyke,  Henry,  Poetry  of 

Tennyson,  33. 
Virgin  Mary,  worship  of,  140. 

Wagner,  Charles,  13  note. 
Ward,  Mrs.  Humphry,  Robert 

Elsmere,  17,  30. 
Warner,  Charles  Dudley,  215  •, 


Index 


329 


Fatalism  in  Modern  Fiction, 
408  note. 

Weiss,  Bernhard,  Lehrbuch 
der  Biblischen  Theologie 
des  Neuen  Testaments,  188, 
400  note. 

Wesley,  John,  53. 

Westcott,  Bishop,  161;  The 
Incarnation  and  Common 
Life,  301;  The  Gospel  of 
Life,  347  note ;  Commentary 
on  the  Epistle  of  St.  John, 
387  note. 

Whitfield,  George,  53. 


Wilberforce,  Archdeacon,  The 
Doctrine  of  the  Incarnation, 
136. 

Wordsworth,  73 ;  Ode  to  Duty, 
quoted,  242. 

Words  of  eternal  life,  197. 

World,  The,  that  is  to  come,  293. 

Young,  John,  The  Christ  of 
History,  349  note. 

Zeitgeist,  3. 

Zola,  £mile,  17,  223;  La  Bete 
Humaine,  213. 


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"  The  author  opens  a  fresh  field."  —  Boston  Traveler . 


SOCIAL  EVOLUTION. 

By  BENJAMIN  KIDD. 

NEW  EDITION,  REVISED,   WITH  A  NEW  PREFACE 
Crown  8vo.    Cloth.    Price  $1.50. 

11  It  is  a  study  of  the  whole  development  of  humanity  in  a  new  light, 
and  it  is  sustained  and  strong  and  fresh  throughout.  ...  It  is  a  pro- 
found work  which  invites  the  attention  of  our  ablest  minds,  and  which 
will  reward  those  who  give  it  their  careful  and  best  thought.  It  marks 
out  new  lines  of  study,  and  is  written  in  that  calm  and  resolute  tone 
which  secures  the  confidence  of  the  reader.  It  is  undoubtedly  the  ablest 
book  on  social  development  that  has  been  published  for  a  long  time." — 
Boston  Herald. 

"Those  who  wish  to  follow  the  Bishop  of  Durham's  advice  to  his 
clergy  —  'to  think  over  the  questions  of  socialism,  to  discuss  them  with 
one  another  reverently  and  patiently,  but  not  to  improvise  hasty  judg- 
ments' — will  find  a  most  admirable  introduction  in  Mr.  Kidd's  book 
on  social  evolution.  It  is  this  because  it  not  merely  contains  a  compre- 
hensive view  of  the  very  wide  field  of  human  progress,  but  is  packed 
with  suggestive  thoughts  for  interpreting  it  aright.  .  .  .  We  hope  that 
the  same  clear  and  well-balanced  judgment  that  has  given  us  this  help- 
ful essay  will  not  stay  here,  but  give  us  further  guidance  as  to  the  prin- 
ciples which  ought  to  govern  right  thinking  on  this  the  question  of  the 
day.  We  heartily  commend  this  really  valuable  study  to  every  student 
of  the  perplexing  problems  of  socialism."  —  The  Churchman. 


THE   MACMILLAN    COMPANY, 

66  FIFTH  AVENUE,   NEW  YORK, 
i 


Outlines  of  Social  Theology. 


BY 


WILLIAM  DEWITT  HYDE,  D.D., 

President  of  Bowdoin  College  and  Professor  of  Mental  and 
Moral  Philosophy. 


i2mo.    Cloth.    $1.50. 


"It  is  a  work  of  much  power,  and  cannot  fail  to  attract  mucfc 
attention." 

"  President  Hyde  does  not  aim  to  upset  established  religion,  only  to 
point  out  how  the  article  we  now  have  may  be  improved  on  its  social 
side,  as  to  which  there  will  be  no  dispute  that  it  is  wofully  lacking.  His 
argument  is  sound  and  sensible,  and  his  book  deserves  to  be  widely 
read."  —  Philadelphia  Evening  Bulletin. 

"  President  Hyde  has  given  us  a  stimulating  restatement  of  old  truth* 
a  new  starting-point  for  religious  thought;  an  admirable  example  of 
the  modern  passion  for  reality.  No  man  who  is  endeavoring  to  work 
his  way  through  a  traditional  theology  into  the  heart  of  Christian  thought 
can  afford  to  miss  reading  this  work.  The  work  is  carefully  done  with 
much  labor  and  precision."  — Book  Review. 

"The  book  is  divided  into  three  parts  —  theological, anthropological, 
and  sociological.  It  is  clearly  written  and  does  not  fail  in  interest  from 
cover  to  cover."  —  Louisville  Commercial  Journal. 

"This  work  is  a  most  encouraging  sign  of  the  times."  —  Metaphysi- 
cal Magazine. 

"  Expressing  a  great  truth  with  novel  force."  —  Christian  Advocate. 

"  A  fresh  and  vital  exposition  —  one  hardly  knows  whether  to  admire 
more  the  sentiment  or  the  expression.  The  author's  gift  of  literary 
utterance,  his  fine  feeling,  and  lofty  purpose  seem  never  to  fail  him."  — 
Congregationalist. 


THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY, 

66  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 
Fine! 


NOV    9   19. 


DtC  31  1947 


SJA 
REC'D  LD 
12-65 -4PM 

\948 


Cli. 


-81 


LD  21-100m-12,'46(A2012sl6)4120 


